The recent policy of the federal government to make corps members of the National Youth Service scheme embark on entrepreneurial training during their service year has been likened to Nigerian First Lady’s call on Nigerians to be frying akara and roasting corn for self-reliance.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had included compulsory entrepreneurial training for corps members while reforming the NYSC Act. The initiative, according to him, is to enable them to acquire skills for self-reliance after their national service.
A civil rights activist and National Chairperson of the Grassroots Initiative Party, GRIP, Nze Kanayo Chukwumezie, described the initiative as “doing the right things the wrong ways”. He told NEWSNGR that the policy “is a deviation from one of the aims of youths service “which is to expose the young graduates to the areas of their studies”.
He said, “By skills here, the government is mostly talking about handiworks, like tailoring, shoemaking, carpentry, and farming. People are supposed to be exposed to these in primary and secondary schools. Then in tertiary level, there should be fully-equipped institutions. We have our polytechnics and colleges of technology where these are supposed to have departments awarding degrees and diplomas.”
He said forcing a university graduate to learn a trade alien to his or her field would be counter-productive. “What business has someone that studied medicine, law, engineering, architecture, mass communication, accountancy, etc, to do with learning skills if things are working well in Nigeria?
“The joke about the First Lady advising people to start selling akara and corn is all over the airspace. What is the difference between this ill-thought policy and the empowerment to sell akara and corn on the roadside? These are doing things upside down and a sign of a failed nation.”
Also speaking with our correspondent, a former President, Nsukka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Mr Uchenna Nnadi, faulted the policy. According to him, the initiative has less prospect of success, as well as capable of destroying the original concept of NYSC.
He said, “After 53 years, the Decree No. 24 of May 22, 1973, establishing NYSC is overdue for a review. The primary objective of NYSC is to promote national unity given the fatal and ethnically divisive Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-1970. The secondary objectives included elimination of prejudices out of ignorance among the new graduates, ensuring even distribution of human skills across the country and self-reliance among the graduates.”
He said imposing skills learning on fresh graduates in such a short time would not solve Nigeria’s unemployment scourge.
In his words, “Unemployment, particularly high unemployment in Nigeria, is a symbol of fundamental socio-economic anomaly in Nigeria’s economy. Such fundamental anomaly cannot be addressed by a quick fix of extra-two or three weeks in the NYSC programme.”
He commended the Tinubu administration for acknowledging the high unemployment in Nigeria, as well as believing that entrepreneurship is an antidote to such unemployment.
“But entrepreneurship results from deliberate government policies, programmes and projects from all facets of the economy, ranging from functional education and industrial research, national industrial policy, basic public amenities to enabling economic environment typified by Ease of Doing Business.
“In this regard, one will venture to ask: how has the federal government’s recent monetary and fiscal reforms, popularly called fuel subsidy removal, exchange rates harmonisation and tax reforms, promoted entrepreneurship and employment? What lessons has National Directorate of Employment learned and made available to the Nigerian governments in formulating their policies, programmes and projects to promote entrepreneurship and employment?”
He called for the review and make public the National Universities Commission and National Board for Technical Education results of their efforts at making entrepreneurship a compulsory course/subject that each undergraduate must undertake in Nigeria’s tertiary educational institutions.
He said most of the tertiary institutions were encouraged to create Centre for Entrepreneurship to entrench entrepreneurship among students and personnel of educational institutions.
“It is only when we have carried out the above honest holistic assessment that we can confront and transform the economic haemorrhage of high unemployment through holistic approach. We must visit economic histories using our socio-economic data to use the holistic approach, intelligently, and not just for ticking the box. The rather isolated patchwork here and there, such as the amendment of NYSC Act to include additional two weeks of training, will amount to much motion without movement.”
He called for national orientation for all levels and arms of governments in Nigeria to the effect that the business of government is making economy thrive.
He also advocated what he called “Town and Gown programme”, elaborating that “any undergraduate degree project that does not solve industry/society problem or could not be patented shall not be approved by the Centre of Entrepreneurship of University/Polytechnic”.
He stated that, “The Centre of Entrepreneurship, NDE, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, NACCIMA, Regional/City Chambers of Commerce and relevant ministries shall be working with the students to ensure that students carry out research projects that solve societal challenges and patent or put them into use with due reward to Intellectual property.”
According to him, NYSC programme should be upgraded to provide higher military training with opportunity of joining the military and other paramilitary organisations in Nigeria.
“It should also be the testing ground to put into practice the graduates’ degree projects with the support of Centre of Entrepreneurship already provided to the students,” he said.
