This year alone, much more than the last four decades of the existence of the institution of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), there have been nearly a dozen well researched books that speak to the strategic essence of that national asset known as the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Thanks to the intellectual bent of the Director General of the NYSC Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim ably assisted by his loyal management team, the nation now has a rich rapporteur of books on the National Youth Service Corps Scheme. It was said that Nigerians do not have a way of preservation of national memorials but the management of the NYSC at the moment has successfully debunked that negative stereotype.
And as we know it, the finest way to preserve history is to put facts down in well written and produced books.
One of the nine books on the NYSC inaugurated recently when the NYSC clocked 40 years is the National Youth Service Corps and National integration.
This aforementioned scholarly book is written jointly and severally by well respected university teachers including the Director General of NYSC just as co-editors are listed as Bem Japhet Audu, Maryam Hamza and Onah Peter Otumala.
Going through this book, I was able to gain some insights into the import and essence of the NYSC Vis-à-vis its fundamental function of representing the pillars for the promotion of national integration. No doubt Nigeria is an amalgam of nearly 300 ethnic nationalities with very rich cultures, traditions and Worldviews.
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He said. “Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement which would have been completed within eight weeks from the date of inauguration of the committee has up till now not been concluded, even though the committee was inaugurated since December 2020.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria willingly agree that the UTAS will replace the IPPIS as a payment platform in Federal Universities after it passed an integrity test. However, soon after the agreement, agents of the FGN are doing everything possible to frustrate the coming of UTAS onboard.
“Meanwhile the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation through the IPPIS office havcontinued to omit our members from payment of salaries while others experience serious salary amputation. We are convinced this is done in connivance with the University Administration through the distortion of our members’ personal details.
“In the meantime, IPPIS appears to be the corruption headquarters of the Federal Civil service, as exemplified by double payment of salaries to employees, payment of salaries to non-employees, over taxation, dubious amputation of salaries, etc.”
Inuwa stated that the body language of the federal government on the proliferation of State Universities shows that they are not willing to put a stop to it stressing that instead, the federal government itself has joined in the Proliferation of Universities ignoring the obvious challenges of funding.
He further stated that it is obvious to the Union that the OAGF is deliberately omitting its members from payment of Salaries and withholding check off dues as a ploy for victimization and coercion to enroll ASUU members into IPPIs.
“This plague,” he said, “has been evident across all Federal Universities in Nigeria since February, 2020. This to us is an outright act of ingratitude on the part of the Government for the sacrifices members of ASUU are making in order to establish a progressive nation. A clear case of punishing citizens for being patriotic.”
Inuwa declared that “Enough is enough. ASUU is fed up with deceptive antics of the federal government of Nigeria.
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“The University Campuses are becoming restive across the length and breadth as Academics are threatening to shut down activities once again. This is coming as a result of the failure of the FGN to implement many aspects of the memorandum of Action it willingly signed with ASUU that ended the last strike in December, 2020.
“Given the glaring and deliberate failure of Government to honour the agreement it willingly signed with the Union, it is becoming obvious that industrial harmony is gradually being destroyed in the University Campuses.
“We, therefore, call on well-meaning Nigerians to wake up the FGN from its slumber to avoid another disruption of academic activities on Universities Campuses across the nation” adding that “the atmosphere is tensed and charged.”
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