Last week, at one of the popular sit-outs, in Diobu area, I watched with nostalgia as some discharged members  of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, gulped down bottles of Grand Beer as they exhibited the normal excitement  that came with the completion of the one year compulsory  national service. The NYSC scheme which was introduced in 1973 as  one of the  legacies of the Gowon administration was fashioned with the intention of forging national  unity among the Nigerian elite, which the upcoming youth corps members represent.  At the beer session, the youth exchanged   their permanent home addresses in addition to photographs,  even as some expressed  regrets that  they may never meet again in this world,  if that be the will of God. But all the same,  they were happy that they have contributed their small measure to  the development of their fatherland in areas far flung from their places of birth. That is the spirit of selfless service which is expected of every Nigerian that is keen on keeping the Nigeria  project alive. However, I was taken aback when  some days  later, I learnt that some NYSC members protested in Port Harcourt over the non-payment of  the state counterpart of their stipend. It  is bad enough  that the affected youth  had been  allowed to go on air to portray our state in less than flattering  light. But I am certain, though,  the hitch  may not have come from Rivers State government officials, from operatives  of the state Secretariat   of the NYSC who may have shirked in their responsibilities  of following up their requests from the state government.

As one of those who ran  the NYSC programme at Ondo  State, several decades ago, I can tell you that nothing could be more  exiting than the service year, just as it is destabilizsing to  hold  back a corpers allowance after service. Except  in the rare case where the intention, which I can vow is otherwise, withholding the money is to bring them to terms with the fact that it is “Now Your Suffering  Commences (NYSC).  But  since  every citizen is still interested in ensuring the best for our youth in terms of education, I wonder what will happen to millions of pupils and their handlers across the country if sub-standard schools are closed down as is being threatened in some states like Rivers and Abia. For example, the stance of the Rivers State government on  early child education is very well known as the state First Lady is a leader in early child upbringing for which she has displayed great  passion.

But  from Abia, news came recently that about 100 illegal  schools would be closed by the authorities. The reason for contemplating this line of action are legion. One, that such private illegal schools were used for examination malpractices and that they recruited mostly  unqualified teachers  who in turn produced half-baked students in the fashion of computer parlance of garbage in and garbage out.

But this is not all there is to the desire of government toward  sanitising the education sector  which problems, if you ask anyone, are hydra-headed.

As such, governments across the country should tread very carefully  in their dealing with private school proprietors, who  on Sundays double as church overseers, using the school hall as a church to cater to citizens spiritual needs. My advice is that instead of threatening to close down some schools for whatever reasons, government should sit back, take a second look at the unemployment table, and  reconsider its plans, good as they may seem for the  development of our children.

For one thing, invading the private schools would boost the unemployment market, which we know, is already glutted. Instead government should think of  ingenious methods of making the substandard schools to form alliances like  co-operatives to boost their showing and beat government requirements. Some of the youth corpers  that were currently  being discharged from service may never be employed by anybody. Their only hope of  survival  is to float churches that run schools thus making them general overseers instead of languishing in the labour market.  Let’s not use hasty policies to create willing souls for Boko Haram and other underworld groups.

Thomas Abbey