The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was set up by the regime of General Yakubu Gowon via decree 24 of 1973 and later modified by the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida through decree 51 of 1993 to inculcate in Nigeria youth the spirit of selfless service to the community and to promote of oneness and unity in a nation diverse cultures, economic and social background. The after effect of the Nigeria civil war which occurred between 1967 and 1970 had left in the people the spirit of distrust, mutual suspicion, bitterness and even the lack of belief in the oneness of the country. Therefore in order to put behind us the challenges of the civil war especially among the Nigeria youth, the NYSC was conceived as a tool to further realize the post civil war objective of a united, strong and self reliant nation, a dynamic economy, a land full of opportunities for all citizens and a free and democratic economy.
The objective of the NYSC scheme was to instill a sense of discipline in her youth as well as promote a tradition of industry and patriotic service to their fatherland. It was also meant to encourage skills development for self-reliance and employment. Most importantly, it was designed to remove prejudices, eliminate ignorance, confirm, first hand the similarities among the ethnic groups of Nigeria. In a nutshell, it was to foster national integration devoid of the 'we and them' syndrome. (Yovbi, M. 2006) However many years down the line we cannot say that the NYSC has fully achieved all this. Rather, it has thrown up a series of challenges that sometimes expose the Nigerian youth to grave danger, thereby leading most people including this writer, to call for a drastic review of the scheme or the outright scrapping of the program. It is in view of these challenges that it is the opinion of this writer that we may not need the NYSC scheme after all the reasons for this would be found as we go further In this essay.
