As the February ending date for the promised commencement of the delayed payment of N77,000 monthly allowance to National Youth Service Corps members draws nearer, concerned Nigerians have urged the Federal Government to scrap the one-year mandatory national service scheme if the expected payment hits a snag.
The Director General of the NYSC, Yushau Ahmed, a Brigadier General in the Nigerian Army, had in January, while addressing the 2024 Batch 'C' Stream II corps members in Katsina State, announced that graduates participating in the NYSC programme would begin to receive the anticipated allowance starting February 2025.
Ahmed also disclosed to anxious Nigerians that the N77, 000 monthly allowance for corps members had been approved by the Federal Government and would be paid once the 2025 budget was passed.
"This month (January) has already ended, but once the budget is passed, by next month (February), you will start receiving N77, 000 instead of the usual N33, 000," Ahmed said as he tried to calm frayed nerves.
Many Nigerians, especially corps members and their parents, took what Ahmed said with a pinch of salt because of the uncomfortable truth that it was not the first time NYSC authorities would make a promise to pay corps members the "elusive" allowance but failed to do so or walk their talk.
The management of the NYSC had earlier announced in September 2024 that the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, approved an increase to corps members' allowance from N33, 000 to N77, 000, in line with the increase in the national minimum wage.
The spokesperson of the NYSC, Eddy Megwa, who broke the news, also said the increase would take effect from July 2024, implying that corps members would be paid two months in arrears.
To their chagrin, when corps members got bank alerts for their September allowance, it was still N33, 000 they received and they wasted no time in taking to social media to vent their frustration on the government.
"As for the government officials who raise the hope of these corps members with all the talks about government planning on paying the new allowance but failing to do so, I think it is high time they paid with their jobs"
A corps member who simply identified herself as corper Nancy said she would be disappointed with the government and put in a tight corner if the N77, 000 monthly allowance was not paid before she signs out in April this year.
According to her, she will be "eternally disappointed" with the government if they fail to do so.
Nancy said, "I will be clocking out in April and I hope I will not be ending my national service without receiving this allowance.
"I also hope the increment to my allowance will be seven months in arrears - don't forget that the payment took effect from July last year.
"So, if I don't get all my money, it will put me in a tight corner and I will be eternally disappointed with the government."
Corper Nancy also said that travelling back to Lagos, where she lives, from her base in one of the South South States after service would cost her about N30,000 and she hopes the Federal Government would "bail us out" in February with the N77,000 allowance.
Asked whether the NYSC programme should be scrapped, corper Nancy said "Let them do so. We've had enough."
Many Nigerians say that the harsh economic climate in the country is not conducive for corps members who struggle to sustain themselves in the states where they are posted to and that the meagre N33, 000 they are currently receiving is not enough.
In the assessment of Nigerians, the economic situation of the country was made worse after the government on May 29, 2023, removed subsidies on petroleum products, exacerbating an already dire cost of living crisis.
After the removal, organized labour - the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress - began to agitate for some much-needed increase to the national minimum wage, and after a torturous back-and-forth with the government, they grudgingly settled for N70, 000.
The government then decided to approve N77, 000 monthly allowance for NYSC members, aimed at boosting the morale of corps members and enhancing their welfare, but many Nigerians still insisted on the scrapping of the programme.
A professor of Crop Sciences at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Phillip Adetiloye, is one of those Nigerians who has come out swinging at the government for sustaining the NYSC.
Adetiloye, in a press briefing last week in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, on the state of the nation, titled "Reform Nigeria or Risk Balkanization," said that the NYSC programme should be scrapped because it had outlived its usefulness.
He also harped on the take-home pay of corps members, stressing that it has demeaned graduates as "uneducated migrant labourers in Southern Nigeria" earn more money than them.
He said that the NYSC programme should be scrapped because it has outlived its usefulness.
"The National Youth Service programme should be scrapped because it has outlived its usefulness. The extremely poor wages and dehumanization of our graduates in the name of a National Youth Service make a mockery of the scheme, hence the need to scrap it.
"Uneducated migrant laborers in Southern Nigeria earn between N125, 000 and N200, 000 per month, which is much higher than what university graduates are paid during the so-called national service. National service should not be national suffering," Adetiloye lamented.
Luckily for the NYSC Director General, Ahmed, the National Assembly, last week Thursday, passed the 2025 budget into law and Nigerians are now avowing that Ahmed will not have any excuse if corps members fail to get what is due them this month.
Nigerians also say the culture of impunity in Nigeria has allowed those in authority to get away with glaring incompetency that should ordinarily cost them their jobs.
A current affairs analyst, Muyiwa Bello, told The Point, "I wonder how corps members, many who were forced by the government to take part in the NYSC programme against their will, are surviving on only N33,000.
"I understand that the NYSC management said that the hardship-beaten corps members would begin to get their upgraded allowance if the budget was passed in February.
"Well, hallelujah, the budget has finally been passed but if the government looks for another excuse to tell us why corps members won't get their money this month, then the scheme should be scrapped as soon as possible.
"Seriously, I don't even know why the issue of NYSC is still polarising Nigerians.
"For goodness sake, Nigerians will not miss the programme if it is scrapped. It has been there since the 70s and most times, what the programme has succeeded in doing is gulp money that should have been used to assist students in other ways.
"As for the government officials who raise the hope of these corps members with all the talks about government planning on paying the new allowance but failing to do so, I think it is high time they paid with their jobs.
"When somebody up there is made the scapegoat, I am sure others would sit up."
Reacting to the call to scrap the NYSC if the new allowance is not paid this month, a public affairs commentator, Benedict Njoku, said, "I know full well that most corps members and other stakeholders will demand that the government scrap the NYSC, but I want to suggest that they look on the bright side.
"The NYSC, even though some people think it has outlived its usefulness, has also been contributing to the country's unity.
"So, whether we like it or not, the programme is still relevant and the government's failure to get their act together and pay corps members the new allowance should not be a reason why the programme should be scrapped.
"Let us wait and see the height Tinubu's government will take the scheme to. Let us also see how this present government will address some of the problems bedeviling the NYSC, and afterwards we can all take a common stand.
"I remember that around 2007 or so, they wanted to cancel the NYSC programme because of paucity of funds. But it was the late President Umaru Yar'Adua who revived it."
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