By Hassan Zaggi, Abuja

Following the widespread rejection of the members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) by both government and private establishments in the country, a retired civil servant, Malam Adamu Garba, has advocated for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme.

Malam Garba, in an interview with Nigerian Newsday in Abuja, said that, the NYSC scheme was causing a lot of hardship to "young Nigerian graduates who have to undergo the trauma of rejections from one organization to another".

Malam Garba said that, the call for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme was necessary considering the fact that, "the scheme has outlived its usefulness, suffers from inadequate funding by the government and the inability of the establishments in the country to absorb the teeming graduates coming out of the Nigerian universities and polytechnics annually".

Malam Garba said that the fundamental reason of social integration, for which the NYSC scheme was established to accomplish has been defeated, adding that, "there was no justification why these young graduates should be stressed, and be made to suffer severe hardship as a result of rejections by the organizations they were posted to, in order to serve their fatherland."

"What is the essence of retaining these children and denying them of NYSC discharge certificate only to be frustrated from the places where they are posted to for their primary assignment, and in some cases, even if they are accepted, they are not paid their allowances as and at when due," Malam Garba queried.

Malam Garba argued that productivity, rather than social integration, ought now to be the main focus of the government as far as the implementation of NYSC scheme was concerned

On the threat by the National Assembly members to sanction any organization that rejects corps members, Malam Garba said that "the National Assembly members are just threatening," pointing out that the "best thing that can happen to this NYSC scheme is for President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to scrap it".

Several NYSC members interviewed by the Nigerian Newsday in Abuja have expressed their dissatisfaction with the scheme, advising the government to intervene to save the situation.

Mr. Anthony Wuyep, a physics graduate who said that he was severally rejected by organizations before he was finally allowed to serve in one of the engineering firms in Abuja, called on the government to scrap the mandatory one year scheme, saying that, this will alleviate the hardship being experienced by graduates in the country.