NYSC- THE BEST POLICY FOR CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT By ENEOJO AKOR

It is important to first consider the word ‘culture’ as the scope of same has so much a thin margin in the understanding of many. Originally, culture was a term used to mean reverential homage. Subsequently, it was used to describe the practice of cultivating the soil, which was later extended to the cultivation and refinement of mind and manners 3 centuries ago. Finally, by the 19th century, a culture had become a term used to describe the intellectual and aesthetic aspects of civilization. Today, Culture is defined as a comprehensive interpretation of nature, a whole system of understanding and changing the world. Culture comprises all the productive expressions of man, technological, economic, artistic and domestic. It implies a systematic relationship between every aspect of life as it is lived. This is where we draw the most basic definition as the way of life of a particular group of people. Hence, culture is that which offers the context, values, subjectivity, attitudes and skills on which development process takes place.

It is important to unlearn the ideology of culture as a static set of values and practices: as culture is constantly recreated when people question, adapt and redefine their values and practices when faced with changes and the interchange of ideas. This is the basis for cultural development.

Nigeria is a multicultural nation with verse diversity where everything is unique from one culture to the other.  She has over 1150 dialects and ethnic groups with 527 known languages. Nigeria's multiple ethnic groups shape her culture. The multifaceted nature of Nigeria in relation to her cultural diversity is responsible for her history.  This is inevitably true as culture sums up the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a people. Her inability to harness her cultural diversity resulted in over protection of certain cultures preventing them from contact and subsequent influence that would have benefitted the nation. This had also resulted in threatening the survival of the culture of the minority groups in the nation.

The problem of cultural development is no unique problem to Nigeria as cultures all over the world are faced with the challenge of questioning and modifying their values and belief. Perhaps the non-receptiveness to unfamiliar cultures and the lack of appreciation for cultural differences in the past has caused some cultures not to stand the test of time.  Today, seven of the 527 known languages in Nigeria are extinct, the same is true for many cultures as in fact they have been pushed beyond their limits of tolerance in manners that suggest danger. This cannot be far from the truth because a change in culture or put plainly ‘cultural development’ begins with processes of innovation, of which cultural borrowing or diffusion is most common. However, it begins with social acceptance, selective elimination and integration.

Different cultures perceive the world differently, and these perceptions, which are almost always based on objective data and situations, give rise to different interpretations in a different cultural context. The manner in which a culture perceives and interprets the world determines her responsiveness to other cultures. This accounts for the fact that in history some cultures have developed faster than others though they apparently share similar objectives applying varying methods but arriving at the same results

Claude Lévi-Strauss, a French anthropologist, pointed out that all cultures are composed of a mixture of exchanges and borrowings. One of the factors that appear to play a role in successful development is a culture’s openness to other ideas, its willingness, as well as a capacity to assimilate other cultures. This explicitly explains the objective of the national youth service corps (NYSC) for integration and unity as a tool for national development.

Unarguably, the NYSC scheme peculiar to Nigeria provides graduate Nigerian youths with the opportunity to satisfy the cost of cultural development. She not only provided the opportunity but has also helped in the accomplishment of cultural development by her interest, involvement and interaction with the diverse ethnic groups, people and cultures in the nation. Graduate Nigerian youths are exposed to cultures other than theirs to help remove prejudice, eliminate ignorance, appreciate cultural differences and confirming the many similarities among Nigerians of all ethnic groups. These patriotic ‘gentlemen corps members’ are provided with the avenue for developing common ties irrespective of their cultural background and differences. They even would have to work together to achieve a common goal in the interest of the nation. Without an iota of doubt, the NYSC scheme was and remains the best policy adopted for cultural development as it involves youth; the strength and power of transformation and sustainable development. The youth are first on the line where social reforms are required. The youth play an essential role in adapting to and possibly even reshaping social norms, values, beliefs and culture.

Consequent to frequent contact and interaction of people from different backgrounds and society (the environment where they interact), it is inevitable to find a mix and blend of culture. A change brought most of all by cultural borrowings and exchanges. This change tends to produce an adaptive effect caused by an initial mixture of resistance to an acceptance of the foreign influence, as well as by a subsequent process of adaptation and assimilation, which inevitably results in some adjustment of the values of the recipient (the person or society).

The success of the scheme in cultural development has been tremendous in the past four decades. Despite the contributions of the scheme to cultural development, many Nigerian cultures, ethnic groups and individuals are on the edge with the challenge of development. Traceable reasons including but not limited to the following;

  hThe views of some who feel that the acme of their society’s achievement is tracked in the past and that they would not surpass or even attain it again, nor, even attempt to do so.

Ø  The feeling that once a certain harmony has been attained between a community and its environment, and a reasonable balance achieved within the context of their culture, there should be no reason to alter the situation.

 h The influence of an attitude of fatalism which suggests that human endeavour and struggle should not go beyond what is necessary for mere survival.

Whatever the reason for delayed or slowed growth in spite of the scheme’s contributions, it is time to begin to appreciate and re-appreciate cultural importance to national growth.  Global experiences suggest that the pathways to national development are strategically hidden in the cultures and traditions of the people. It is no doubt a global fact that culture plays a vital role in the growth of a Nation. In some countries, it plays a major role in the development of the country. Culture as a viable tool of development is under-estimated and not annexed. Culture is a cure-all for growth and development. Nothing is achieved and could be achieved except it is operated within a culture. Therefore, it is important that a country like ours with so much cultural diversity continually learn to cherish cultural development from the grassroots.

I beckon on Nigerians to be ‘culturally confident’- hold their values in high esteem while appreciating the cultures of others without demeaning them. A culturally confident society would be more open to external influences and would, therefore, derive greater benefit from them, while a defensive society would put greater importance on sterile traditions, taking offence at any change caused by external forces, and smothering the elements that advocate such change. Though there exists a hierarchy of values in each culture which largely determines the extent of acceptance to change, it is important to reiterate that no significant development can take place without a desire for, willingness to, or an acceptance of change, that which suggest cultural development. The NYSC scheme has profited the nation in areas of national development as a consequence of the vital role she plays in cultural development. It is thus the best policy adopted for cultural development since its establishment in 1973.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Eneojo Akor

OS/19B/3878