By Kolawole Johnson
The National Youth Service Corps was established in 1973 by the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon after the civil war. It was born from a clear desire to heal a fractured nation and bring young Nigerians together after thirty months of conflict.
For more than five decades it has remained a mandatory one-year service for graduates, giving them the chance to live and work outside their familiar ethnic and regional spaces. Since its inception, the scheme has largely succeeded in its core aims of fostering unity and contributing to national development.
It is against this background that a response becomes necessary to Lanre Ogundipe’s recent piece titled “Let National Service Begin with Dignity, Not Suffering.” In that self-styled SOS, Ogundipe presented the NYSC as an institution that subjects young Nigerians to untold hardship beginning from the orientation camp, describing it as an initiation into suffering.
Reforms in the NYSC have been taking place over the years. The scheme has never been static, nor was it ever conceived as an invitation into suffering. It was designed as an invitation into nationhood — a structured opportunity for young people to serve beyond their comfort zones and gain practical exposure to the wider country.
At orientation camps, corps members are received with welcome packages that include basic personal items and essential materials. The beds provided are firm, clean and serviceable.
Meals are regular and adequate, offered three times daily to sustain participants through the programme of activities. At the end of the camp period, start-up packs are issued to ease the transition into places of primary assignment.
These provisions, while not luxurious, demonstrate that the scheme makes deliberate arrangements for the welfare of those who serve. Beyond the camp, the NYSC has equipped many participants with practical ICT skills.
Through structured sessions and day-to-day demands at places of assignment, corps members become familiar with basic computer applications, digital tools and online processes. These competencies remain useful long after the service year ends and improve employability in an increasingly digital workplace.
The teaching experience offered by the scheme has also proven transformative for many. Posted to schools across the country, corps members stand before classes, manage limited resources and engage young minds daily.
The responsibility of consistent instruction builds patience, clarity and a deeper sense of purpose. Those who have taught during service often leave as different persons — more grounded, more aware of the impact of steady contribution, and more connected to the realities of grassroots education.
The NYSC, for all its imperfections, remains one of the few remaining national institutions that still forces young Nigerians to confront the full complexity of their country rather than retreat into the comfort of familiar ethnic and regional enclaves. To dismiss it as an initiation into suffering is to ignore both its historical purpose and the quiet, cumulative good it continues to deliver across communities that would otherwise remain underserved.
What the scheme needs is not abandonment or endless lamentation, but honest refinement and sustained political will. With the recent reforms already under way, the challenge before government, administrators and the public is to ensure that the original vision of national service is strengthened, not diluted, so that future generations of corps members experience the programme as a genuine pathway into productive citizenship rather than a season of hardship.
Ogundipe’s portrayal of the NYSC as a system of hardship overlooks these quieter but lasting benefits. The scheme has its difficulties, yet it continues to offer structure, exposure, skills and a rare chance to understand Nigeria beyond immediate surroundings.
To reduce it solely to suffering is to ignore the value it still delivers to participants and the communities they serve. Ogundipe would do well to experience the scheme directly. Completing a degree and participating fully, or exploring any available pathway to join, remains the most honest way to test the claims made. First-hand involvement provides the clearest basis for judgement.
Johnson writes from Abuja