Tinubu’s Ministers Differ Over Extension Of Corps Members’ Service Year
The Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, has condemned the call for the extension of the service year of National Youth Service Corps members.
Olawande said it is better to have an impactful one-year service where corps members are properly equipped with the capacity to create jobs and impact their lives rather than extend the service to two years.
OSUN DEFENDER reports that Minister of Education Olatunji Alausa had on Friday called for the extension of the mandatory National Youth Service Corps scheme from one to two years.
He made the call when the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja.
But Olawande while speaking with journalists on Monday in Abuja after the 2025 Annual Management Conference of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), said the only way things can be better is to reform the NYSC.
The youth minister stressed the need to create a National Internship Scheme that would enable the corps members to properly equip themselves to get good jobs or become entrepreneurs after their service year, rather than just serving their fatherland without being productive.
He said what corps members knew about the word NYSC was to go and serve their fatherland, hence they just go and spend the one year without adding value to themselves and motivating others.
He said if they got training and certifications, which would be useful to them after the service year, “one would feel more fulfilled looking for the service year rather than all the march past taking place in camps. It’s time we changed things.”
Olawande said if things continued to happen the same way, new results that would make impacts would not emerge.
“The only way we can make things better, even better than applause and praise, is to reform the NYSC. I’m not saying that things aren’t being done properly, no, I’m not saying that things are not going well,” he added.
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
