NYSC - NIGERIA

I remember back in secondary school we would normally laugh at the corpers because of the meaning we playfully gave to the NYSC abbreviation. NYSC stands for NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS, but we would call it NOW YOUR SUFFERING CONTINUES. Today I look back seeing I am about to embark on my own NYSC journey, and I ask myself if truly my suffering would continue. I decided that after school I would work before going to serve my country so that it would be easier for me to have a reason to redeploy from any state I would be posted to. Now that I think about it, serving the nation of Nigeria is suffering especially because of the circumstances surrounding service to the country.

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NYSC is usually for a period of 12 months (1year) And in that period corpers are required to actively participate in services to the nation. They usually assist in any public gathering sponsored by the government and must assist in ensuring things run smoothly. Take it as a year of community service. It doesn't end there, corpers are also given jobs from both government and private sectors, but then the system is too choked up that 98% of corps members are given teaching jobs in government or private schools which I think limits their potential. But then it doesn't matter what I think right, it's just how the system runs. Sometimes I wonder why private industries do not hire corps members and it wasn't until on Monday 12th of August I got my answer.

Through the HR department in my company, I discovered that indeed private industries with more than 5 staff are required to employ at least one corper a year, and are also required to add to the salary the government pays them. Up until the president of Nigeria announced that the new minimum wage would be 70,000 naira, corpers salary is about 33,000 naira which is paid by the federal government. The state government is required to add between 15,000 to 25,000 naira but a lot of state governments do not. And private sectors are to also pay within that range to corpers which should sum their monthly salaries between 63,000 - 83,000 naira.

Photo from Unsplash

I personally do not have issues with the service itself, my issue is that a lot of corpers suffer during this period and usually rely on just the 33,000 naira the federal government pays which I hear is sometimes not frequent. Another issue I have is with the system of insecurity that is ravaging the nation and the northern states of Nigeria especially. Those posted there do not want to go, some might try as much as possible to redeploy themselves to any other state in the west, south or east just so they can feel safe and this is the major issue with NYSC. As I embark on my own journey I pray it doesn't end up as the meaning we have as kids and rather becomes a memorable experience to make my life better.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 127 EPISODE 2