Facts: What You Never Knew About the National Youth Service Corps

NYSC, known as National Youth Service Corps is a Nigerian organization which was established by the Nigerian government to engage fresh Nigerian graduates of tertiary institutions in national development.

The NYSC scheme was set up “with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity”

During the early years after Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain, the country was filled with so much strife and tribal segregation that the Nigerian government of that time sought to foster unity among every Nigerian, starting with the youths through a programme that removed cultural and geographical bias.

After the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, the Federal Military Government, under the leadership of General Yakubu Gowon, set out to rebuild the Nigeria through a programme which was known as the 3R’s- Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation.

The programme to rebuild Nigeria, known that time as Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation, which constituted the 3R’s helped set up the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on May 22, 1973. The scheme was established under Decree no. 24 as a way of meeting those 3R’s goals and to encourage and develop healthy common ties among…