Taiwo Popoola
Minister of Youth, Comrade Ayodele Olawande, has requested that the management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) change its programme to allow corps members to have enough rest during their 21-day orientation camp.
The minister made the call during the 2025 annual management conference, themed ‘Transforming the NYSC Scheme to meet the yearnings of the contemporary Nigerian graduates and society, held in Abuja on Monday.
According to him, adjusting the time to allow camp drills to start later in the day – about 7:00 am – instead of the usual 4:00 am daily routine, would help the prospective corps members become more active.
The minister said he has already started consultations to make this a reality, adding that he is dedicated to the welfare of the Nigerian youths.
He said, “The NYSC members should be allowed to start their drilling by 7:00 am and not 4:00 am.
“Is drilling the purpose for us to do things? Of what purpose is drilling to us? We are not saying drilling should not be there. Drilling should be there. But we talk about unity in diversity. We are bringing them together in unity, and that is the major purpose.
“So how can we still stay on the purpose of bringing new innovation? When you are active, when you are doing research, when you are doing things differently, when you are making up in life and all that within three weeks, how can you be lazy? You can’t be lazy.
“What we are saying is to recharge the brain and make the brain work from what we have now, so that you can have the job market.
“Since when we’ve been drilling, are we viable in the job market? We can’t continue to be putting people out every year, 480,000 [every year] and no improvement.
“See, there’s nothing. There’s no job, there is no house, there is no institution that you keep on doing the same thing every time, and if you want a different result, you cannot have it.
“So that is why we are saying we are looking beyond. We want to even think outside the box so that we can get it, and that is why you see all these directors; I can tell you, they have the energy. Now, the energy is back, and they want to do the right thing, not that they were not doing the right thing before, but he wants to do it more.”
