NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE: A GUARANTEE OF BEING A GRADUATE? By D. C. UCHENDU

Take your time, ask your self this question;

'Who's a graduate?' 

Maybe a graduate is an intelligent person or some graduates from a school with a high level of reasoning or what have you. A recognized individual from a reputable institution. And how does this relate to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and satisfactorily being a guarantee for graduates? I guess this question may make us see clearly as we proceed. But then;

 'Who's a graduate?'

 If you answered that question from the beginning then read through my stories as we buttress the issue.

 I had an opportunity to step out with a course mate who probably had issues with the school and didn't get mobilized for National Youth Service as and when due. He expressed his sad feelings for, he avoided visiting the village. He said that most persons won't believe you're a graduate until they see you in the NYSC khaki uniform.

 I guess he gave another example of a brother who graduated from school even before he gained admission. My friend has graduated and he told me that the brother is perceived as one who played his way through in school and maybe, a problem student because he's yet to be mobilized for NYSC.

 You see, the people today believe that NYSC is a sure play for determining who truly went to school and studied hard. Once you are thrown into the khaki uniform, that's it, you're successfully a graduate.

 Well, at the time the General Yakubu Gowon administration established the NYSC, the aim of NYSC centered on selfless service. A wholehearted service year expected from the Nigerian youths without expecting any reward. The need for an increase or rapid progress on all fronts turned out a lofty project which NYSC is part of achieving that goal. The youth would have to serve the Nation for a whole year to basically understand the need for service, uniting the nation and increasing the funds of the Nation. Of course, it may sound laughable these days that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow. We wait patiently for that tomorrow to come.

 

 A little bit back to the past. I've had a time I almost struggled to be among the best in school. One time, my position in the class is nowhere but nearly the last. Sounds horrible!

 Sometimes many years back, my cousins visited and my mum would stage us on writing essays. They beat me in scores and my mum's words never drop on me with pity. I frowned a lot at it. My cousins did very well and perceived as highly intelligent.

 I discovered in higher institutions that those who took the first position in secondary schools had difficulties in writing and punctuating well. They could hardly write what is understood. When I read their works, I wonder how they overcame. 

I've been opportune to mark scripts. I discovered even the yelling and puffing up of students and how we wrote so well in an exam hardly turned out true. We hastily wrote something that is considered hard to coordinate its meaning. Most times, our ability were perceived by the lecturer and through his mercies, we came out in flying colours. Not because we wrote well. 

In some occasions, I've been allowed to see my script in an exam I felt I did so well. But, when I took the time to criticize myself, I discovered that I wrote without being patient. And now I think writing has a way of one being patient enough to convey the appropriate meaning. I had to be my own ruthless judge. I had to read like a novice who couldn't understand what is written in a book. Yes, so that when next I write, I write and read it myself like I would do to another person's work. It helps me perceive it just as my reader would and when the meaning is not conveyed, I start from the beginning to write again.

 

NYSC is a platform that receives graduates from various institutions. This simply means anything a graduate has become is based on what the higher institution has made one be. One is guaranteed a graduate because the school certifies them as one, not because they have worn the khaki uniform of the NYSC. Under the NYSC scheme, you are serving the nation to learn leadership, humility, fund management, politics,  selfless service, entrepreneurial skills, business, conflict resolution, idea creation and execution, language and culture of other tribes and many other opportunities found in it. That's the guarantee of what you receive for serving the nation under NYSC. 

Today, I see a lot of people say they want to learn from me how I write but they don't know the stress and tears attached to it and how far growth happened. I still want to learn how to write but they won't understand the shame I had. The hurt I had for being at the bottom of the class. The shame for writing without patience and meaningless. I took the decision to become better and that's the guarantee of what I've become in writing. That's the guarantee of becoming a better person. A decision to humble myself and learn what I didn't know. I have seen most of my classmates those days in secondary school who had better positions in class but today, they can't write well. In fact, most graduates are yet to learn how to write a readable piece.

 Do you know that you're not perceived as a graduate who really passed through school when you don't write well? I mean, graduates should write with meaning and avoid unnecessary abbreviations. 

If I didn't decide to write at all, I wouldn't have agreed to take this topic today. If my coursemate as discussed earlier in this piece will develop himself more, he would be a guaranteed graduate even before going for service. I think, you're being judged by the kind of engagements you fix yourself in. Graduates aren't drunks and smokers or constantly found in the bar.

 

Finally, it's important to learn punctuations. Not just in writing because it makes you be perceived as one good with manners. To become anything, the guarantee is based on your determination to be understood. Of course, you want to be perceived as a graduate, so speak like one, walk like one, write like one, and learn every day like one. NYSC is not just a guarantee for attaining the national service mark rather a scheme for building your humility and service.

 

ABOUT THE WRITER

D. C. Uchendu

Code Number: OS/19C/2218

Course: Building Technology

Institution: Federal Polytechnic Nekede

State of Origin: Abia State