by Tunde Leye

It seems the best course of action to take in Nigeria when something is not working well is to ignore it. The moment you begin to speak about it, it seems the gods touch a fuse in the minds of those running the show and they decide to do something even worse than what you were throwing the tantrums about.

So just last week, I was still writing about the woes of the NYSC, triggered by pictures of orientation camps I saw from around the country and of course my own memories. As if on cue, the NYSC came up with a scheme that is not only unacceptable but downright Abba Moro-esque. Going forward, Nigerian graduates who have no choice but to serve have a choice to either go through the arduous and unreliable process (never mind that the responsibility for making this process work lies with the NYSC and the schools) of getting their call-up letters from the school, or employ newly deployed technology deployed technology (which should have been done long long ago) and for this convenience, prospective corpers are expected to pay N4,000. To serve your nation, you are expected to pay a N4,000 entry fee.

Now, the annual budget of the NYSC according to the budget office is 91% of the total budget of the Youth Ministry at N78 billion. Of course, only about N584 million out of this, less than 1% of its total annual budget. We see immediately why there is not much improvement in developing the camps and other infrastructure that support the scheme. One wonders why, with the lion’s share of the Youth Ministry’s budget (an anomaly, considering the small percentage of Nigerian youths that go through the NYSC) one wonders why the cost should be passed to Nigerians. The NYSC is not a business. It is a scheme designed for national unity. Surely, our very expensive government can find some money from its humongous waste to fund the new innovation. The Corps Director of Mobilisation, Anthony Ani explains the rationale behind the fees for getting the call-up letters using the new technology here. I repeat, a scheme like the NYSC should not be reduced to this. Government should take more responsibility for creating enabling environments and systems for citizens to fulfil their duties.

If the government cannot revamp the scheme and make it relevant, cannot improve on the scheme and clean up the way the money allotted to it is spent, they must at least not turn it into a burden for Nigerians to bear to enrich some pockets. We demand that the N4,000 fee be scrapped now.

I investigated the new modernization corps members are expected to pay N4,000 for. In the Anthony Ani defense quoted above, he mentioned the company behind the new technology, a SIDMACH Technologies. This is the website of the company. they have an impressive clientèle and the site says they have been incorporated for 20 years. For a tech company of such experience and clientèle, one would expect that they know that their website is a very important business contact point. But, whether deliberately or not, their Management team page is empty.

For a company providing service that can generate huge sums annually to the federal government, this is either sloppy or suspicious. We remember what happened with the Interior Ministry’s recruitment scandal which led to the death of about 20 Nigerian youths. Companies shrouded in mystery who get these kinds of renter deals from the government and make a lot of money. If there are 300,000 graduates mobilized annually, and they all opt to pay N4,000 for call-up letters, the company stands to make a N1.2 billion revenue from this scheme alone, annually.

For a scheme that gets so much money, it can commit N1.2 billion of its own money to pay for this technology on behalf of Nigerians. No amount of explanation can justify passing the cost to Nigerians. If the government cannot revamp the scheme and make it relevant, cannot improve on the scheme and clean up the way the money allotted to it is spent, they must at least not turn it into a burden for Nigerians to bear to enrich some pockets. We demand that the N4,000 fee be scrapped now.

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Tunde Leye tweets from @TundeLeye

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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