The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against scrapping the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.
HURIWA, a frontline Rights group, warned that scrapping NYSC is a disaster waiting to happen in Nigeria.
The Rights advocacy group stated that scrapping the scheme would have a sociological impact on the Nigerian youths.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said crime will spin out of control if the “Federal government accede to the dangerous proposal to abolish the National Youth Service Corps Scheme (NYSC).”
Onwubiko stated that the NYSC scheme was too “important for Nigeria’s unity to be thrown aboard by the National Assembly.”
According to Onwubiko: “After a well considered research and opinion poll conducted by HURIWA, the preponderance of opinion is that President Muhammadu Buhari should jealously preserve the National legacies that the NYSC Scheme represents.
“If there is one thing the National Assembly has done exceedingly well since the return of the country to democracy in 1999, it is playing to the gallery. Inconsequential laws have always received greater attention while the lacunas to be filled with progressive legislations and legislative interventions are left largely unattended to. One of such distractions is the proposed law for the scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme .
“The proposed bill before the House of Representatives seeks to repeal Section 315(5)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended) .
“The call for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme has been on for some time now. The arguments of the proponents center on the position that the scheme had outlived its usefulness.
“Necessarily, therefore, the benefits and objectives are to enable Nigerian youths acquire the spirit of self-reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self-employment; to contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy and to develop common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration.”
HURIWA noted that the NYSC scheme has united Nigerians more than any other government establishment in the country.
“There is no national institution that has united Nigerians more than the NYSC scheme. Nigerian graduates have been compelled to see other States and cultures. ”
HURIWA also urged NYSC management against posting corps members to states with high insecurity issues.
