LAGOS AUGUST 29TH (URHOBOTODAY)-With background of kidnapping, killing, robbing and other menaces encountered by members of National Youths Service (NYSC) across the country, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and former Delta State Gubernatorial candidate, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has advised  the Federal Government to  either scrap or rejig the programme.

The one-year mandatory programme  for Nigerian was established in 1973, three years after the Nigerian civil war to, among other objectives, foster national unity and integration in the country.

Decades later, Onuesoke is  of the opinion that it has outlived its usefulness and is no longer relevant. He therefore suggested that the programme should either be disbanded or calibrated.

While calling on President Bola Tinubu  during a press conference in Lagos,  the PDP Chieftain  questioned the use of the scheme hence  the expected deliverables were not met. He recalled that  many young Nigerians have  lost their lives on the road in the cause of serving NYSC.

“It’s absurd  as over the years, the NYSC programme has since been abused by the management as it has turned to the opposite of what it’s created for. Beside, rising insecurity in various parts of the country has made the scheme become become outdated.

“The scheme  is no longer a safe practice considering the fact that innocent, naive youth graduates are deployed to communities and regions they know nothing about, which increases the chances of them being hurt for the one year period of the programme,” he stated.

Onuesoke queried   the essence of sending university graduates to serve NYSC scheme when the constitutional qualification of President, Senators, Reps, Ministers, Commissioners  and other elected officers have school certificate qualification?

“How can a senators, governors or president   now questioning Commissioners or Ministers nominees about NYSC   certificates whereas it takes them ordinary school certificates to become senator, governors or president?, he queried .

He lamented that due to insecurity across the country, the top NYSC management officials now gave considerations to posting corps members to their geopolitical zone, thereby defeating one of the objectives for setting up the scheme.

“The objective   of  NYSC is  to create unity in the country  and for us to understand ourselves.  But  what is the essence when a senior official  of NYSC who is from Lagos State  influence posting of prospective youth corper  who is from Lagos state and schooled in Lagos state to  serve in the state? In this case,  the unity we are protecting has been  defeated,” he  argued.

Onuesoke however advised that if the  NYSC Scheme cannot be scrapped,  it should  be restructured to suit the modern day development.

“What I mean is that the scheme  should be redeveloped into regional human development programme, where graduate will be trained  in vocational skill and mentored for a year on developing solutions to their regions problems. The fund budgeted for  salaries and others miscellaneous should be paid to youth graduates  to start off business of their own after acquiring skills,” he advised.