 NYC at 50. Many social media platforms have been floated with image memories from people who have successfully passed through the National Youth Service Corps program in commemoration of NYC at 50 years. I've made the different images from people, brought back, you know, some nostalgia. Many people shared their NYC experience. There are several key lessons to draw from these experiences. And if we're to make progressive headway with the NYC program, we must go back to the drawing board. The NYC program was created on the 22nd of May 1973 as an avenue for the reconciliation, reconstruction and rebuilding of the nation after the Civil War. It was established based on the decree number 24, which stated that the scheme was created with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and, of course, the promotion of national unity. Some years ago, there had been a movement to scrap the NYC program, and it had more negative impact than the intended positive impact for which it was originally designed in 1973. It stems from the fact that many young people wasted 11 months of their lives sitting in a remote village where they were literally incapacitated. I mean, if we think about it deeply, we all know that the NYC program needs a lot of facelift. I personally do not hold the opinion that it should be scrapped, but we can do so much to revamping it into something much better. The program affords the government an opportunity to get real-time feedback from core members, but I doubt that the government has explored this opportunity. These feedbacks will become the necessary tool to rebuilding and restructuring the NYC program. The program also reveals how much broken our educational system is. There is very low premium on education. There's also the issue of national safety and national security, which has always been there. I strongly believe that the NYC program is a massive opportunity for cultural awareness and integration across board. People shouldn't have to influence their deployment and posting, but it's happening to you this very day. We won't pretend that we don't mostly know why people influence their deployment. There's a lot of untapped potential with the NYC program, and I am specially calling on the government, this very minute, to invite relevant key stakeholders to take another critical look into the program. So I'm going to start with Elijah. You served during the National Youth Service School program. What was the experience for you? I served in August 2017 to July 2018 in Anambara, specifically Onitsha. Aside from the nice food and rice, I don't joke with that. I am able to go and test my Ibu understanding. I understand Ibu language to a very good extent, and I can write to a very good extent. I may not be able to speak fluently, but it was an opportunity for me to test my Ibu. But the good thing is, during the period of my service, I met people from different parts of Nigeria that came there to serve, and of course we learned quite a lot of things, meeting people and the rest. But the service itself, the scheme itself, I think there are some overhauling. Let me give you an example. They want to emphasize skill acquisition because of trying to give us this idea that don't expect the government to provide a job for you. You can actually acquire skill and use this for your own economic advantage. But the process by which they recruit people to give you such kind of training, number one, the trainings are not sufficient enough, timing and maybe some people are not really in tune with what they are in for. So I think they can work with stakeholders to make it more meaningful. Over the years, NYC has, I wouldn't say it as I would leave its purpose. This period that we're having problem of, I don't want to use the word national disintegration, but you know what I'm saying. People say, well, this you have also tried, you don't marry this. I think NYC scheme should be fostered to help national integration, but it should be revamped because I remember a case where, you know, when you go to the, when we're in camp, you know, we learn quite some things, but if you check, these things they are teaching you, is it relevant to these markets? Now, those these, if you go and serve, it has served this purpose. They need teachers in villages and all those things. Yeah, it's okay. But right now, we, Nigeria should not be dragged to that level. Just being a rural teacher, that's all. You want to help the government in helping educate children in a rural environment. What would the government do for you? How can you be able to came to the trade first century business like era or skill, recommended skills? So I think the government should look into it. Fantastic. And it's a good thing that some other countries are copied, I wouldn't say copy in us, but emulating us. Countries like Niger Republic, I think that was the time they came, their president came to Nigeria, I think some years back, where they wanted to launch their own national service, even Ghana, Ghana doesn't seem, Ghana doesn't seem. Other countries like Israel, South Korea, their own is more military like. But I think whatever is what doing at all, is what doing well. Wow, awesome. So let me come back to Mr. Steven. So basically, right, it's been a long time you served. I don't know if you can remember your experience. No. You know, so I like to share your experience. And also, what do you think? I mean, it would also be good to glean on, you know, several decades since you served and then looking at what it is now, right? And how can we really tap into the full potential of this program? Okay, so I served in the last year of the 80s. And where? It adjusted me. Now, my experiences, well, I think I found in the ordinary Nigerian, a fellowship, a work on, I mean, on the, on the broad, on a broad look at it, I was welcomed by people I did not know. Once it was recognized that I was a youth copper, amenities were made, accommodation was made for me. Oh, it's a youth copper. Let's see what we can do. So on that level, just imagine, if people like us are not gone there, that's that that just seeing people from another culture, just seeing other people will not have happened. So on that level, there's much to see is progressive about youth core. But then we lose a lot. When like you mentioned, you have these manipulations of you transfer, you are doing, you are doing redeployment and all these things, you miss the purpose. And these days, it has become massive, even that essence of mixing up with cultures that you don't know, we miss it a lot. But you can't blame them now considering what happened in 2011 in Kaduna, where core members were killed following the re-election of, should I call it re-election? Okay, following the election, it was actually the re-election of Good Luck Donatan. Very young, very young. Security concerns. Very unfortunate. Also, on another level, I want to take it from the management level. Over the years, I think also what has not been looked at is how NYC itself has been managed. Has it been prudently managed economically and all those factors need to be looked at. When you embark on such huge projects, there should be time when you come back and reflect on what you are doing. I don't think those, that kind of reflection has gone on with NYC. NYC is an offshoot of something old. America used to have what they called the Peace Corps, but they use it as an instrument of diplomacy. They take a young person who has graduated and bring him to your country to teach another way. In Nigeria here, we receive such people. They manage it up to a point, to the point they realize, okay, is it, are we getting the bang for the buck? And they gradually deal with it. Like you said, other countries do military service. What other countries do with military services? They look at it and say, we are not constantly at war. Do we need a standing army of this proportion? Can we use young people coming up to be stopgap and to keep them in the army for as people who can be brought back? America does something like that. South Korea does something like that. And some other countries, Switzerland does something like that. Where the bulk of the army is the youth. They are trained. They are part of the army for a number of years till they are 40, but they go to work. If there's a war, they could be called back. In that way, you are managing your resources in terms of you are not wasting money, which is where I go back to the, what I was talking about, about fund management and all that. Because what they are doing, they are killing two birds with one stone. They are having an army at the same time. Working class people. Working class people and army. Working class people and army and all that. So those help their security along the line and all that. The issue of insecurity across the country is a big issue that we need us to reflect on the value of NYC. Nobody wants to train anybody and send him defenseless to a place where he's endangered. And come back in the box. You imagine how many people left their father's house and you were brought back in a box called the casket. They can't defend themselves. If to say they were sent in to be like in a military outfit, they would defend themselves. They would have things to defend themselves. They were part of an army. But here, they are just sent there and they are left at anyone's mercy. But there was a time when we were sending it to propose the idea of military training for NYC and it was done then. Remember that that was done in Mac. They were sending it to Mac. Right from the beginning, right from the beginning it was raised. That's from the inception of NYC. It was raised. We were a military ruler at that time and the military did not like it. Although ironically, every NYC station is headed by military men. But they didn't like the idea. So we need to look at the insecurity in the land and ask ourselves whether in the light of the insecurity that is going on, we may not need to adjust because insecurity is not going to go away easily. You have a situation where Boko Haram, ISIS and all that are growing. Above us, you have all kinds of things going on in Mali, Chad and all that. So like I said, you don't have big projects like this without sitting back after some time and reflecting. Come back, sit down and reflect on what you are doing. What are the challenges? What is the future? What is the forward way forward? I don't see, at 50, you should expect, I don't know whether there is such a colloquium of them coming back to seriously talk about what's the future of NYC, giving all the challenges for the next 50 years. Are we going to move forward towards the paramilitary something or is it giving us bang for the buck or is it not? And with these redeployments, what's going on? We need to sit down and think of it, reflect for the future, plan for the future. Other nations, which progress, this is what they do. There's no perfect anything. Every time you come and you find tune and you think about it, but you must always do it honestly for your own progress. Fantastic. All right. So I believe we can do great things within these 12 months. We only need to intentionally create the enabling environment to make it happen. Steven Aguirre is next after the break. Please stay with us.