NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORP; A PARADIGM SHIFT TO PROFESSIONALISM AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION

  ABSTRACT : After the Nigeria civil war, the needs for reconciliation, reconstruction, and rebuilding of the nation became a necessity that the government of that time has to create the national youth service corps (NYSC) scheme on the 22nd may 1973. To encourage and develop common ties among the Nigerian youths as well as promote national unity by creating an avenue for the young Nigerian graduates to take part in a compulsory one year national service program; with the expectation that the young Nigerian graduates will in the process get mix with other Nigerians from different ethnic groups, social and family backgrounds, and learn the culture of the local community they were posted to serve. So as to foster unity and strengthen the spirit of brotherliness among all citizens of Nigeria, capable of bridging the gap that was created by ethnicity. However some critiques of the scheme beliefs that these young Nigerians’ precious solid year is wasted in an unproductive and more of a wasteful year as far as professionalism and job experience is concern. Hence this study adopted summative evaluation method in assessing relevance secondary data reflecting the national operation of the scheme, where content analysis was used in interpreting the data. And been guided by system theory, it was concluded that professionalizing the NYSC scheme through corps members’ cluster field of study camping, is a noble course that needed not to be down play because of its ripple effect on both national integration and the developmental stride of the nation.

KEYWORDS: National integration, National youth service corps, Professionalism.