Serving Our Father Land, Playing Our Part
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Serving our country is supposed to be something each and every one of us is happy about. Nothing is supposed to bring more honor than dedicating ourselves to contribute positively towards the growth of our nations.
But most people are vexed whenever they hear the phrase "Service to the government" because of how dark our world has become. We labor to see our dear countries grow into better places but our leaders take advantage of it and have no regard for our sacrifices.
Every country has a mandatory service program for a stipulated period of time for its citizens during which every citizen who reached a certain age or level of education is expected to spend serving the government until that period of time is over.
Down here in Nigeria, the popular one is the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Every student who finishes their first degree or Diploma and meets the requirements is expected to voluntarily spend the next one year serving the government in various organizations based on the student's field and area of experience.
During this period, the students are also placed under government payroll until the deal is over. Many citizens enroll not because they want to serve but because of the money, and I won't blame them.
Jobs are difficult to get nowadays, at least from the little money they get from the government, one can save up something and start-up life.
That is the part I love so much about the initiative, you serve, you get paid, and some people in the process even get permanent appointments in the places they served.
Do You Think It's Necessary?
The duration is not even much and it's not as if during this period of time, one would be serving for free.
Apart from the monetary advantages, the students also get experiences that would be of help to them in the long run.
On the side of the government, they have a larger workforce, and places where workers are limited get more workers. We all know the kind of labor corpers do in their various places of primary assignment, especially those teaching.
I once taught in a government primary school where the headmaster was praying for corpers to be deployed to his station because of the limited number of teachers in the school.
I am pleased with this initiative, it's a win-win for both the government and the citizens. Most people will not see the relevance of this program until it is scrapped.
If you ask me whether to scrap the initiative or not, I'll say, it shouldn't be scrapped out. Removing that program will increase the rate of poverty and joblessness in the country. Like I stated earlier on, some people began life through what they saved up during NYSC.
Imagine how rough it would be when people graduate and then have nothing to start up life with. Also, who would play their role in the government? Scrapping the NYSC would cause harm both to the government and the citizens.