What does it mean to serve?

What a last couple of months! I always thought I knew what "busy," "occupied," "stressed" meant until I arrived at MIT and found out first hand. The song of my favorite artist- P-Square- comes to mind "E no easy oh." My goodness!  However, no matter how busy I have been, the mind cannot stop to wonder about things not related to chemical engineering.

Because of the hate emails I have gotten and friends harassing me because I have not posted for a while now, I have succumbed to their endless pressure. As an added benefit, I shall use this post to celebrate my upcoming birthday.

Now, the topic I shall be writing about today strikes a cord among many Nigerians, both those in Nigeria and those abroad (especially international students). If I had written this post last year in 2011, I would certainly have received harsh comments and insults not worth repeating. Nonetheless, it is a topic that is vital to address when one analyzes the Nigerian education system, and is proposing ways to fix and restructure it. The topic is not unique to Nigeria, but one widely known. It is the meaning of service. What does it mean to serve?





In Nigeria, after graduating from university, every student is required to enroll for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) where they serve their country for one year doing numerous tasks, such as teaching, working in the private sector etc. For those who reside in the US, the NYSC program is similar to the Peace Corps, although the Peace Corps is not required. NYSC has been a program that has irritated and annoyed many who feel that they waste one more year of their life after having wasted some more years during their university career because of professor strikes and school closures. The reason I mentioned earlier that I would have gotten harsh and cruel comments if I had written this post last year is because last year during the presidential election in Nigeria, some NYSC students (henceforth referred to as corpers) were killed in election violence. This angered many who feel, rightly I might add, that students should not be deployed to states where they will be endangered.

Despite all this, the NYSC program goes on. I have to mention that many do enjoy the program because of the numerous life changing experiences they have and the friends they meet. This is the reason why the NYSC program in Nigeria must stay. Not only must NYSC stay, but it should be reformulated in a way that benefits the students and the country they serve. The rest of this post will discuss specific ways the NYSC program can be changed.


For many years now (yes, many years), I have contemplated ways to change the NYSC program and make it more palatable to the students and the country. First of all, we have to acknowledge that the NYSC program is here to stay and should not be abandoned by the government. The first thing I will say to those who argue that the NYSC program should be stopped is to refer them to countries like South Korea, Singapore who require their youth to serve for two years in the military. In Nigeria, we serve for one year and some of us even get to work in the private industry and we are still complaining? Complaining that it is unfair. They should talk to my Korean and Singapore friends who have sacrificed two years in service to their country. It is a part of life and a part of the education process one will have to go through. Once we are okay with the existence of NYSC, we can focus on changing it to benefit Nigeria. One way to do that is to analyze how the program can enrich the nation and benefit us economically.

First and foremost, NYSC was created after the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970 to bridge the gap between the various ethnic groups in Nigeria and foster national pride. Corpers meet, learn, and connect with others from various tribes and environments, and this broadens their perspective and and enlightens them. So, why send our students to places like Kano state, Jos (Plateau state) etc. where residents are being killed like flies when you know that student's lives will be threatened. When one is worried about their safety, the last thing that comes to mind is bonding with and learning from your fellow corpers. The way to solve this problem is to ban the deployment of NYSC students to those troubled states and tell the governor in that state or whoever cares to listen that if the safety of the corpers cannot be guaranteed, then no corper will be deployed to that state. For example, in Bauchi state where four corpers were killed in election violence, NYSC can ban Bauchi state for one year from receiving the next batch of NYSC students until they can prove that the students will be safe. Until they do this, they should expect no deployment of students. Why should the governors of those states care? It is all about the economics as discussed below.

And now for the life-changing moment..

The Federal governments should establish a set of National farms (cocoa, rubber, coffee etc),  around states in the country, and require that batches of corpers be sent to these farms as part of their one year service. Note that Nigeria used to be one of the dominant exporters of cash crops like cocoa. The corpers shall run these National farms as enterprises that can be used as a learning experience for the corpers. All the corpers will be involved in the day-to-day physical tasks of managing the farm. In addition to that, some students will serve as leaders of their various subgroups in the NYSC batch deployed to that National farm. We can have subgroups involved in the business aspects of running the farm, some involved in the maintenance of the equipment, and so on. The produce from the farms can be sold by the government as food for our people, and some can also be exported to other countries. The students will gain a sense of accomplishment when they see their project literally bear fruit at the every end. Some of the profits from the National farms will be allocate to the state government where the farm is located. Some profit will be allocated to the Ministry of education and some, of course will serve as income to the Federal government. All these proposed profits are sources of income that we do not currently have. The state government gets a share of the profit pile giving them incentives to support the NYSC program and provide more than adequate support for our students. The ministry of education gets profits that can later be distributed to universities as a way to improve education funding and get the changes we need in our education system (Read my earlier post on this topic: http://chibvin.blogspot.com/2012/06/some-thoughts-on-funding-education.html#links). The federal government can slowly but surely rebrand Nigeria as a nation of farmers, and not a nation totally dependent on crude oil for its survival.

Why use NYSC corpers for this? One reason is that these corpers are paid a stipend for their one year service; stipends that are just enough to survive. Therefore, the costs to the government will be very minimal. In fact, the cost will not significantly be more than what our students are currently being provided. Therefore, the labour is essentially free. There will always be students available every year, meaning there will be no shortage of 'workers.' This idea of National farms can be designed as mentioned before as a way of training our students in many aspects of life by exposing them to financial matters, leadership and teamwork opportunities, developing great traits like persistence, patience and hard work (farming is not easy) etc. that is needed in the 'real world.' The living situation of these students should also be as ideal as possible, with the NYSC office and the state providing a safe and peaceful environment. After the year of service, new sets of students replace the exiting ones and the process begins again. The timeline for the the year of NYSC service can be timed to coincide with the planting season and end with harvesting season where students can see their products sold for profit. In addition, for students that haven't found jobs after graduation, they can be allowed to extend their service for one more year. This will reduce the prevalence of students who line our streets with their university degrees, but no job to show for it. The students who are allowed to extend their stay can then teach the new set of NYSC students who come in the next year. This will make sure that necessary skills are learned, and also provide an experienced hand and mind to readily help the new students. The maximum number of years one can serve can be limited to three years, and during that time, the student must keep on showing evidence to the NYSC office that they are indeed interviewing and actively looking for jobs.


This idea of using our corpers in our National Farms can be translated to many other things. We can establish new Federal and State secondary schools that always use corpers as their teachers. One can easily see the financial benefit of doing this (not employing and paying full-time teachers). Something special the government can do with these schools is make them free. There are no labor costs with respect to paying teacher salaries; sets of needed books can be purchased and reused by each student from year to year without forcing students to buy new books. To make sure that our corpers can teach our future generation, the Ministry of education can require that every graduating student in the nation must take a 'Teaching 101' class during their undergraduate career to ensure that they understand how best to teach and explain certain materials to our young ones. Our full-time teachers will still get their jobs and often they will serve as mentors to the corpers. Similarly to what I said earlier with regard to the National farms, corpers can be allowed to extend their stay for a maximum of two additional years. Instead of wasting their talents at home doing and earning nothing, they can be at these schools teaching, and at the very least earning a stipend. Nigeria can use this opportunity as a way to educate our future generation in a way that has never been done before. Imagine a nation with most of its population armed with an education and the idea that they can make a name for themselves and write their own future. Imagine giving them the power of education that allows them to rise above their circumstances and dream of a world unimaginable to them if they had had no education or just a primary school certificate.

Imagine that. Imagine all we could do with the human resource we have with our NYSC corpers. Why let them suffer for one year 'in service to their country,' and not actually give them the power to fundamentally change our nation. This is what it means to serve.






Some more things to think about:

The NYSC office can organize contracts with private industries where corpers are currently deployed. These companies can be required to pay fees to the NYSC office before corpers can be deployed there. The type of work corpers perform will be closely monitored by the NYSC office to make sure they benefit the corpers. These contracts can be renewed and re-evaluated every four years to make sure they meet standards. Renewal of contracts often mean more money for the NYSC office.

Once state economies start to depend on NYSC students for the money the state needs to function effectively, the state will hopefully be more willing to prevent strikes in universities. The more often strikes occur, fewer students will graduate, and fewer students will be available for the National farms or secondary schools etc. This then becomes an economic issue for the state government, and will benefit the education system if the state is more willing to help the education sector.



If you wanted to read more about some of the things I mentioned in the post:

About the NYSC students killed in Nigeria last year because of election violence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/20/nigeria-election-violence-deaths-arrests

About the military service requirement in Singapore.
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw05/050324af.htm