Statism, Youth and Civic Imagination: A Critical Study of the National Youth Service Corps Programme in Nigeria

11. Evaluation

11 Evaluation Former corps members noted that that the NYSC was a good initiative that had turned sour over the years. For one, the programme seemed to have become more exclusionary than inclusionary. For example, the age cap has been lowered from thirty to twenty-five to decrease the number of participants; and graduates of monotechnics and part-time courses hitherto eligible for the NYSC have also been barred from participation.41 Although this could be justified on the basis of the poor economic growth and performance of the Nigerian state over the past twenty years, nonetheless it is contended that such exclusionary measures question the rationality and continued relevance of the programme as well as an implicit admission by the government of its doubtful relevance. In fact, the negative slide in the quality of leadership in Nigeria is also seen as a factual indictment of the NYSC. The scheme is seen as training bad leaders (enhancing the ‘chop-I-chop syndrome’ – prevalent corrupt acquisitive spirit) and doing little to promote patriotism. However, most critics still agree that a national service programme is an essential pillar of nation-building. The national service scheme in Nigeria is still relevant to the extent that it is redesigned and refocused to achieve its original goals. The problems of the NYSC, it is argued, parallel the foundational problems (ethno-religious and class divisions, corruption and bad political leadership , among others) of the Nigerian state. Though the NYSC was established to resolve these key foundational problems , the programme has become another layer of the problematic Nigerian state. The NYSC could effectively enhance patriotism, for instance, only if the state discharges its reciprocal obligations to the youth. Until the larger crises of the Nigerian state are resolved, the NYSC will, at best, continue to provide formal structures for youth to meet in an ‘holiday-like’ manner without enhancing any citizenship value beyond the orientation camps or the service year at most. Statism, Youth and Civic Imagination 58 Beyond Civic Imagination: A Contribution to the Critique of Service and Citizenship Wherenationalserviceissuccessful,somegeneraloutcomesareexpected.Donald J. Eberly (1994) has articulated these outcomes thus: National service participants accomplish important tasks not otherwise being performed and they do so in a cost-beneficial manner. Participants in national service develop a higher self-confidence and increase their awareness of the needs of others. National service promotes mutual understanding in a plural society. Thus, national service often appeals to newlyindependent nations as a way to promote a sense of nationhood among its citizens. National service is a vital form of experiential education. Participants learn from the experience with or without a deliberate educational component (emphases added). He continues: National service can be a unifying force among those who serve. With the exce tion of the parent–child relationship, there is probably nothing that binds people together more strongly than working together in common cause. National service can fortify democracy because it is based on reality, not demagogy. National service programmes that tap into strong central national values are the programs that tend to be substantial and more stable over time (emphases added). This is of course the ideal situation in which political, social and economic benefits accrue to the served and servers in a joint enterprise of communal/ national development. The present work is premised on three assumptions: (i) that there is a necessary relationship between service and citizenship; (ii) that youth service in Nigeria has failed to promote a sense of citizenship among the youth; and (iii) that service can enhance citizenship only within a given socio-political context. The findings appear to confirm these hypotheses. Any sociological account of citizenship – and its linkage with service – needs to consider three interconnected dimensions of citizenship (Roche 2000:217). The first dimension is the typical ideals and values of citizenship and of a community of citizens; the second is the socio-structural context that underlies citizenship as enabler and disabler of the capacities of citizens for development; while the third is the change in the nature of both citizenship and its structural context (ibid.). These are the dimensions within which we have tried to consider 59 Evaluation serviceandcitizenshiphere.ThefailureoftheNYSCtopromotecitizenshipvalues intheyouthstowardstheconstructionofanew civisinNigeriaismainlyaresultof the objective and subjective conditions of the national socio-political context. There is no doubt, as the survey, FGD and interviews reveal, that the scheme offers important social services, without which life in some rural areas in the country would have...