THE need for the transformation of the National Youth Service Corps scheme became glaring following the security challenges that beset the scheme and the death of some corps members on national duty during the April 2011 elections. While some people clamoured for the scheme to be scrapped, others advocated for its reform.

Like many Nigerians, I was also of the opinion that the NYSC as presently operated is in a bad shape and in dire need of reform. So when early this month I came across an online article in which the Minister of Youth Development, MallamBolajiAbdullahi, unveiled a new NYSC posting policy as part of a larger reform package that the NYSC is currently putting together, I gave the two thumbs up! The new policy will focus on the skills and intellect of corps members in posting them to areas of critical need: education, agriculture, rural health and infrastructure.

The timing of this policy couldn’t have been better. Finally, a policy that is development- oriented at a time the country is inundated with enormous socio-economic challenges. This initiative is laudable and I applaud Mallam Abdullahi and the Director-General of the NYSC, Brig-Gen. NnamdiOkore-Affia for championing this reform.

National service is a call to duty, and the service year is an opportunity for every Nigerian graduate to contribute to the development of our country. Imagine for a moment the tremendous opportunities that are possible when our graduates become a vehicle for national development. Imagine our hospitals filled with ready and competent hands to deliver quick and efficient services to our sick; imagine a Nigeria that is food sufficient again and a net importer of agricultural products; imagine our education system filled with fresh graduates who our children can look up to… Just imagine what the future holds for us as we refocus the minds of our young people to put Nigeria first.

While I read through the article I couldn’t help but recall a lunchtime conversation with a friend, Fatima, on her NYSC experience which further reinforced, for me, the need to focus the scheme around national development. Fatima is a foreign trained graduate and was, during her service year, posted to teach in a public school in Abuja. Initially, she resisted the posting and made several attempts at getting a new posting. Her reasons were simple and quite frankly, if you ask me, genuine; she studied and trained as a lawyer and did not see how teaching would be beneficial to her in her area of study. Secondly, she did not have a single teaching experience, and in fact disliked teaching. Lastly, Fatima was worried about the chances of getting a job after her service year, especially if her place of primary assignment was a school.

Suffice to say she did not succeed in getting reposted and was stuck with the school posting. But as weeks turned into months, Fatima realised that she was not such a bad teacher after all. She adopted a creative and participatory method of delivering the curriculum that the students responded very positively to. Most of all, the students warmed up to her and in a matter of weeks she became their hero; a model of what they aspired to be. She also became their confidant.

Fatima recounted a particular incident which was, for her, a defining moment. For several days she had taught her students about sexual molestation and abuse; a subject that is rarely, if ever at all, addressed in our public schools. She did not anticipate the reaction that will follow. Just days after the lesson, students will come to Fatima and share their personal stories of several forms of abuse.

One afternoon during recess one of Fatima’s favourite students and her frequent lunch time conversation partner approached her and asked to speak to her in private. One look in her eyes, and Fatima knew that the story was not going to be as pleasant as their usual lunch-time chats. Fatima’s fears were confirmed when the student began to narrate several occasions in which she was sexually molested.

Fatima could not hide her shock. She hugged the child tightly in an attempt to ease the pain while she wiped off the stream of tears now flowing from her own eyes. Apart from being a confidant, she also became an adviser to this girl and several others.

Fatima successfully completed her service year and has moved on with her life as a professional in her chosen field. In retrospect, she was thankful for her posting. She considers her time at the school an experience of a lifetime and wishes more corps members will be posted to the educational sector so that many more of our students in the public school system will have the chance to be taught, inspired, mentored and helped.

With the new NYSC posting policy, Fatima’s wish has a higher chance of being realised not just in the educational sector, but in the other critical sectors as well. And this will be good for the corps members, their host communities/institutions and the country at large.

Ms. ANNE CHINWENDU, a policy analyst,  wrote from Abuja