N33k: When I was in my final year, I actually did feel National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) period will be the best time to gain experience about life, job, fun, meet new people and all.

To be sincere, the twenty one days of camping was for all that shit, the remaining months is for me to decide what I really want to be after service year which brought me to this topic – “NYSC : is N33,000 really the way out?

Is N33k really the way out of poverty and backwardness caused by bad governance?

Well, N33k  is never the way out but then as a youth a lot of us need to know that the government is buying our voice.

I am a graduate of Food science, and after NYSC I would love to know that there is a Food company ready to hire me. My friend Segun Awe  is an engineer and I’m certain the way out for him is to know that after service, he won’t stay at home for one year hunting for job.

Here is where the problem lies – there is difference between having money and having source of money. I believe the N19, 800 was still manageable, we would still survive with it, then the N13, 200 that was added could have being use to fix any of the following problem which would make the country better.

1. Create employment

2. Pay pension to retire workers

3. Form alliance with other country to create job opportunities.

Create Employment:

I once read that the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo as of the time he was on seat employed about a thousand graduate to his farm and now about two thousand plus people work under “Justrite” which is owned by him.

The added money would have being useful if the future of the youth is actually important to the government, but I doubt it is. A government who is just interested in what the youth will eat now and live, not what they will feed on and be better is not making a better plan.

The added money would have being used to pay pension to retire workers, mostly who are government workers; the government can’t tell me they care for me if my parent are suffering because of them.

A lot of retire worker are living in chronic poverty, some of these people transport themselves day and night to the pension office, hoping and praying that miracle would happen, this N33, 000 was meant to be their miracle but the government chose to steal it away from them.

Some of them are dying of ailment they can’t care for due to the stress they faced while they were young and here we are ‘ No retirement plan for the by the government.’

The number of Nigerians who are out of school is increasing daily, we are all Nigerian but we are not faced with equal opportunities i.e., a fellow corp member decided to buy thirty jamb form for students who couldn’t afford the form, I think the N13, 200 would have served if they were used for that.

There are many problems which of course would make the increased money useless to corp members I.e bad roads, expensive transport and threat to most corp members because some of the populace believe the government treat them better, but the truth is, the government is trying to buy our voice as a group of youth, our ability to fight for the old people.

A government who really want the growth of the country do not solve problems from the surface path, but from the root.

The N33k  incorporation is like solving many problem but the truth is only the surface of the problem is cleared, there is still a part where we get to suffer after the service year which is involves about ninth percent of graduate sitting at home, going for interviews day after days when the government could have fixed.

Form alliance with other countries:

Employment Rate in Nigeria decreased to 76.90 percent in the third quarter of 2018 from 77.30 percent in the second quarter of 2018, of which from then unemployment rate has being increasing, unlike Ghana for example:

The overall employment levels in Ghana are marginally higher than the SSA average, with a higher employment-to -population ratio in Ghana than in SSA. The ratio is a measure of the ability of an economy to create employment. Developed economies tend to have lower ratios than developing economies, and an excessively high ratio is an indication of an abundance of low productive and low-quality employment.

Employment levels in Ghana rose from 5.77 million in 1992 to 12.03 million in 2013, representing a 3.7 per cent average annual employment growth compared to 3.0 per cent in SSA.

The employment growth of Ghana was not based on the ratio of the country to give out money or increase payment, but their ability to create employment. Nigeria can form alliance with countries like Ghana, Kenya and Sierra lone to create more employment opportunities instead of increasing allowance payment to Youth corp members.

We are eating our future already, so we can be like our parent who depends on the government.

This is exactly what N33k will lead to.

Temi Badmus