The Guest Speakers invited to discuss the way forward for improved corps administration and better utilisation of corps members at their various places of primary assignment during the 2021 NYSC Corps Employers Workshop were unanimous in their submission for better and adequate funding for the Scheme.
Speaking separately on the theme, 'Optimising the NYSC/Corps Employers Partnership for National Development in the context of the New Normal', majority of the erudite scholars posited that NYSC operations have become more extensive and this requires massive funding to achieve better results.
Speaking at the Okitipupa Zone, Dr. Daniel Olukayode Adekeye submitted that if employers would maximise the potentials of the graduate youths posted to them, stakeholders who are the direct beneficiaries of the invaluable services of corps members should be ready to make substantial sacrifices towards assisting the Scheme to effectively deliver on her objectives.
Dr. Akekeye, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of General and Entrepreneurial Studies at the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa said that it is a fundamental and procedural errors to believe that Government alone can sustain the funding of NYSC operations.
"Distinguished Corps Employers, we need to tell ourselves the gospel truth. We desire NYSC to post corps members to our various organisations and institutions, yet we do not want to support the Scheme financially and materially but we think Government alone should shoulder the enormous responsibilities. This should not be so in the 21st century".
"It is absolutely correct that Government is using part of the tax payers money to fund the Scheme but as stakeholders, we need to inject workable ideas into the programme established over 48 years ago and this must not be mere academic exercise but with a sound and solid commitment by all and sundry" he said.
The University teacher appealed to employers to stop paying lip services to enhancing the operations of the Scheme nationwide because according to him, 'building on foundation which is structurally defective will not take us to the expected end'.
Corroborating the speaker, Bashorun Bashiru Idowu Olawale of Isero Grammar School in Odigbo said that NYSC should provide the corps employers with working documents to be able to maximise the potentials of the members of the service corps.
At the similar workshop in Akoko Zone where the Owa-Ale Adimula of Ikareland, HRM Oba Adeleke Adefemi Adegbite-Adedoyin was the Special Guest of Honour, the lead speaker, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluwafunbi Oluwafemi asserted that if the NYSC Scheme is better funded, many of the ills of the society associated to youthful exuberance or peer influence would be aggressively tackled.
Dr. Oluwafemi whose area of specialisation is Agricultural Extension and Communication affirmed that rather than frustrating the good intentions of corps members about Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme of the NYSC, with their unwillingness to allow them perfect the skills and vocations learnt at the camp, corps employers should devise a time table acceptable to the two parties.
She agreed that some of the corps members because of their limited scope about life and exposure to certain idiosyncrasies may be recalcitrant and unwilling to abide and adhere to work ethics at places of primary assignment but employers as parents have a task to perform and this should be done in love.
"My dear corps employers, if as parents, we can tolerate the excesses of our biological children and those that are placed under our care, let us be equally tolerant of the exuberances of these sets of graduate youths so that what they have to offer will uplift the services our organisations are designed to achieve for the society" she said.
In his submission, Mr. Oyebode, the Vice Principal (Academics), Greater Tomorrow International School, Arigidi-Akoko appealed to employers to give adequate and appropriate inductions to corps members when they report for the continuation of their service after the orientation course.
"Constitution of the Federal Government of Nigeria is a document that guides our actions as responsible citizens of this country and anyone else that acts ultra vires to this document faces the music and if corps members know that a composite document exists in the organisation, they will not misbehave knowing fully well that reporting such to NYSC management will attract severe sanction and punishment".
At Ondo Zonal workshop, the lead speaker, Dr. (Elder) Joshua Timothy Sunday opined that better working environment and commensurate motivation will bring out the best in the corps members.
According to Dr. Joshua, who is the acting Head, Department of Political Science, Wesley University of Science and Technology, Ondo, believed that every human being deserves the best and will offer the best services if the reward mechanism is compact and delivered to him as and when due.
"The carrot and stick mechanism put in place should be enforced by the NYSC as well as the corps employers. Let the reward system be entrenched at the work place to encourage the corps members to go extra mile while NYSC should on the other hand sanction recalcitrant ones if the reports are submitted, and this should not be swept under the carpets" he concluded.
Contributing, Pastor Olorunyomi Lawrence of Shaftoe Global Resources appealed to NYSC management to intensify corps inspection to all the places of primary assignment where corps members are engaged as this will continue to serve as checks and balances for the serving corps members.
"I am aware that NYSC is committed to routine inspection and this is done discreetly from Directorate Headquarters Abuja and Area Offices in all the geopolitical zones in the country without a recourse to State Secretariats but I want to appeal that the frequency should be improved upon and this boils down to better funding for the Scheme which all employers are agitating and clamouring for".
In her goodwill message delivered through the Zonal Inspectors at the workshops, the State Coordinator, Mrs. Victoria Nnenna Ani thanked the corps employers for sustaining the cordial relationships with NYSC over the years.
Mrs. Ani while promising to implement the outcome of the communique arrived at all the workshop venues vowed that NYSC will not relent at making the corps members role models that the present generation and the coming generations will continue to be proud of.
"It not an understatement that challenges in our nation are huge and enormous but surmountable if all hands are on deck to support the vision of the founding fathers of the noble Scheme" she said.
The State Coordinator said that NYSC will continue to explore positive ways and attainable avenues through which the interface with critical stakeholders and corps employers will produce the best results the workshop seeks to achieve.
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