NYSC and the price for service
It also enhances the registration process and aids data collection for the prospective corps members. However, the introduction of N4000 registration fee for printing of call-ups letters is outrageous. It is also obvious that NYSC isn’t a tax-collection agency neither is it a revenue generating board. Rather, it is a governmental body established to coordinate […]
It also enhances the registration process and aids data collection for the prospective corps members.
However, the introduction of N4000 registration fee for printing of call-ups letters is outrageous. It is also obvious that NYSC isn’t a tax-collection agency neither is it a revenue generating board. Rather, it is a governmental body established to coordinate and supervise the one year compulsory national service.
The question begging for answer is; “Why should graduates pay money to serve their fatherland?” An officer of NYSC, Mr. Tony Ani, who featured on Raypower FM morning show on Monday September 15th, justified the introduction of N4000 registration fee, saying “it was due to the huge cost of acquiring the software for the registration, internet service cost and maintenance cost of the software.”
The introduction of the NYSC online registration is a credit to the NYSC but the cost for printing of call-up letters is exorbitant and a minus for graduates, especially the poor ones. It is astoundingly infuriating how some government agencies and boards have become cynical and exploitative lately; spreading the embers of cheat and manipulating the system to their advantage at the detriment of Nigerians.
It is unfortunate that we have leaders in different positions who make the system worse than they met it; from the removal of fuel subsidy, the re-introduction of ATM fee, to the introduction of NYSC registration fee of N4000 by prospective corps members.
NYSC like our telecommunication companies should be channels for deepening positive values and serve as togas of professional scorecards – not avenues hijacked by some cynical forces, manipulative charlatans and inimical system robbing innocent people of their hard-earned monies.
After all, how well can NYSC justify the payment of N4000 for registration? It is sad that we have designed a social order that has crucified honesty and transparency, where government agencies and private organizations constantly strive to oppress and exploit the masses by manipulating the system to their collective detriment. How can one make any sense out of the N4000 for printing call-ups letters, coupled with the main online registration cost by every graduate who is to serve? The NYSC should be preoccupied with the desire to make the National Youth Service scheme more relevant in terms of ethno-religious co-existence, empowerment of corps members with entrepreneurial skills and social integration among others.
The payment of N4000 for printing of call-up letters by prospective corps members imposed by the NYSC management is a careless display of moral recklessness and ineptitude to the plight of graduates. The adverse effect of this policy is unfair, painful and disgusting.
Etudaiye is a 400 level student of Mass Communication at BUK