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National Service and National Consciousness in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Otwin Marenin
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Extract

Economic dependence and cultural diversity are the bedrock upon which the élites of ex-colonial states attempt to construct a functioning state apparatus, a viable economy, and a sense of nationhood to surround and enshrine the emergent order. The achievement of national integration is sought in language and education policies, cultural and ideological programmes, and the structuring of access to – and distribution of – available resources. It is basically for this reason that a number of governments in the Third World require their highly educated youth to spend a year of service to the nation after they leave the university. Hence the National Youth Service Corps in Nigeria, which started operating in 1973, amidst great publicity, and has since become an established part of governmental and student planning. By mid-1979 about 46,000 had passed through the programme, serving the nation in a variety of jobs, mainly as teachers, before being employed in either the private or public sector.

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Articles
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The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1979 , pp. 629 - 654
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

page 630 note 1 Agunloye, S., ‘NYSC Policy Revisited’, in Sunday Times (Lagos), 10 11 1974.Google Scholar

page 630 note 2 This and the subsequent description of the workshop are taken mainly from Afriscope (Lagos), III, 4, 04 1974,Google Scholar and an interview with the chairman, Professor D. A. Baikie.

page 630 note 3 New Nigerian (Kaduna), 23 02 1973.Google Scholar

page 631 note 1 Ibid. 27–9 February 1973.

page 631 note 2 Lt. Col. A. Ali, Director of the N.Y.S.C., ibid. 6 July 1973.

page 632 note 1 Ibid. 27 February 1973. This feeling was more bluntly put in a comment written in the library copy at Ahmadu Bello University of the New Nigerian, 2 March 1973, which reported a speech by a high-ranking civil servant criticising the students: ‘Old Idiot. Ex NEPU Thug. What sacrifices have you made. Mr. Big Fool.’

page 632 note 2 Afriscope, III, 6, 06 1973, p. 8.Google Scholar The description of student motivations is also based on West Africa (London), 12 03 1973,Google Scholar and Adams, U., ‘Nigeria's Youth Corps Scheme: from demonstration to acceptance’, in The Rock (Jos), 07/08 1977.Google Scholar

page 632 note 3 New Nigerian, 2 March 1973.

page 632 note 4 Release by the A.B.U. Students Union, in ibid. 5 April 1973.

page 632 note 5 Statement by the National Union of Nigerian Students, in ibid. 19 April 1973.

page 632 note 6 A description of student opinion as if it were homogeneous is obviously erroneous; nor is this implied here. Students tend to be deeply split on many issues, yet the great majority will generally ‘go along’ with the pronouncements of their leaders. Hence the student boycotts, riots, and shootings that led to the closures of most Universities during April–May 1978. As might be expected, not all students are united over the merit and timing of any demonstration, and in several cases the University authorities have called in the police and the soldiers to stop clashes between student factions.

page 633 note 1 New Nigerian, 10 April 1973.

page 633 note 2 Ibid. 3 July 1979.

page 633 note 3 The number of students in these categories can be quite substantial. For example, in 1974–5, there were 596 exemptions and 406 deferments (116 lawyers, 202 doctors, and 88 pharmacists); Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Lagos, 1975), p. B9.Google Scholar During the first four years for Ahmadu Bello University alone, 324 exemptions and 672 deferments were granted; D. A. Afolabi, ‘The Impact of National Youth Service Corps in National Integration’, Research Essay, Department of Political Science, Ahmadu Bello University, 1976–7.

page 633 note 4 Figures taken from Lt. Col. A. Ali, ‘The NYSC: impact on graduate employment and labour mobility’, Conference on Economic Development and Employment Generation in Nigeria, University of Ibadan, November 1975, printed in New Nigerian, 28 and 2911 1975;Google Scholar and from figures given by Lt. Col S. K. Omojokun, the current Director, in ibid. 5 July 1977, and Daily Times, 24 May 1978.

page 633 note 5 Omojokun, , Daily Times, 23 12 1975.Google Scholar

page 634 note 1 New Nigerian, 21 May 1976.

page 634 note 2 The Governor of Gongola State, Colonel M. D. Jega, made this reason quite plain in his welcoming address: ‘80 percent of NYSC members deployed to his State would be used to teach throughout their stay in order to insure the success of the UPE scheme.’ Ibid. 14 August 1976. Teaching has been the main assignment of the participants – usually up to 50–60 per cent of those assigned to each State, and these figures have increased since the inclusion of N.C.E.and H.N.D.-holders.

page 634 note 3 Interview with N.Y.S.C. official in Lagos, October 1977.

page 635 note 1 An address by Omojokun in Gongola State, reported in New Nigerian, 15 May 1978. However, some members complain that the emphasis on ‘national ideals’ and selfless sacrifice has been replaced by premium on the ‘productivity of the Corps members in terms of labour’; Odeyemi, O., ‘An Overview of the NYSC’, in The Corpsman (Lagos), 1, 3, 05 1976, p. 16.Google Scholar

page 635 note 2 This is a part of the programme the students dislike heartily. As one complained, ‘what embarassed most Corps members was that soldiers with the rank of Sergeant Major or even below were constantly harassing them with stinking and insulting phrases like ‘Close your bucket’, ‘No daylight’, ‘No dancing’. Famiyi, A., ‘An Appraisal of the NYSC’, in New Nigerian, 24 07 1976.Google Scholar Many students also think that the lectures they sit through are boring and too reminiscent of the academic situation they are supposed to have left behind – interviews with participants during orientation camp at Ahmadu Bello University, 1975.

page 636 note 1 In one project – according to a Corps member interviewed in November 1976 – the N.Y.S.C. participants had no tools for two days, then ‘worked’ three hours a day for a week, ‘watching’ daily-paid labourers from the Ministry of Works, and were perceived by the villagers as just another group of workers, though obviously less industrious. In another area ‘a few Corps members revealed that they spent part of their 1.00 [the daily allowance during this period] on hiring labourers to carry out the community projects and just stood by while the labourers worked.’ National Youth Service Corps, ‘Report on the Post-Orientation Course, Service Year, 1973–4, p. 22 – a well put-together and frank summary of reports submitted to the National Directorate by the Chief Inspector of each State.

page 636 note 2 For a good description of community projects in Kaduna State, see Para, S. N., ‘National Integration through Communal Labour’, Research Essay, Department of Political Science, Ahmadu Bello University, 1976–1977.Google Scholar

page 636 note 3 Ali, J., ‘The NYSC, Manpower Problems and National Integration: Kaduna State as a case study’, Research Essay, Department of Political Science, Ahmadu Bello University, 1976–1977.Google Scholar

page 637 note 1 New Nigerian, 18 May 1978.

page 637 note 2 E.g. a writer asked why of 75 female graduates from the University of Lagos, all with Yoruba surnames, 17 had been assigned to Lagos State and 10 to Kaduna State. The answer by the Directorate was that they had been trained and deployed as F.E.S.T.A.C. guides. Daily Times, 3 January 1977.

page 637 note 3 New Nigerian, 26 November 1976.

page 637 note 4 Daily Times, 14 October 1976.

page 637 note 5 Ibid November 1975.

page 637 note 6 E.g. Adejo, J. A. and Jatto, S. A., in an ‘Open Letter to the NYSC Directorate’, in New Nigerian, 20 10 1976,Google Scholar claimed, not without some justification, that ‘This category of student graduates have during their working lives fulfilled most of the NYSC objectives.’

page 637 note 7 Daily Times, 3 November 1975.

page 637 note 8 New Nigerian, 1 June 1977.

page 638 note 1 Ibid. 8 June 1977.

page 638 note 2 Ibid. 15 May 1978. These views are echoed in Ayandele, A. O., The Educated Elite in Modern Nigeria (Ibadan, 1975), ch. 4,Google Scholar and Peil, Margaret, Nigerian Politics: the people's view (London, 1976), pp. 84–5.Google Scholar

page 638 note 3 ‘The Evaluation of National Youth Service Corps Scheme during the Winding Up Exercise by 1975–6 Corps Members', compiled by the N.Y.S.C. Secretariat, Maiduguri, Borno State, from discussion groups involving 80 outgoing Corps members. Self-reliance has increased: ‘a number of Corps members sometimes jokingly say that if their wives didn't work they would stage a coup and take over the kitchen’. Tete, A., ‘Letter to the Editor’, in New Nigerian, 1 09 1975.Google Scholar

page 638 note 4 ‘The NYSC scheme must cease to be a one year paid holiday. This has hitherto been the case for Corps members deployed to the Ministries.’ Only members deployed in health and education have made ‘worthwhile contributions’. Editorials in ibid. 1 June 1976 and 15 May 1978.

page 639 note 1 F. Iyela finds the fault in the ‘suspicious attitudes of government officials in the State Ministries who regard Corps members as birds of passage who must not be allowed to see classified Government papers just because he is an indigene from another State’. ‘National Youth Service Corps and National Integration’, Research Essay, Department of Political Science, Ahmadu Bello University, 1976–7, p. 69.

Another writer commented on teachers in the Corps: ‘Quite alarmingly the Corps members who serve as tools in this medium of achieving this goal are ill-treated and nicknamed horrible and unbearable appellations. Last October a Federal Government official of the NYSC had to warn Principals in Plateau State to desist from regarding Corps members as being on national punishment.’ Omotola, G., ‘National Youth Slaves’, in Daily Times, 29 01 1977.Google Scholar

page 639 note 2 Much in these descriptions is taken from research essays done during 1976–7 in the Department of Political Science at Ahmadu Bello University. In addition to the essays by Afolabi, Ali, Iyela, and Para already mentioned, these include Y. Ahmed, ‘NYSC and National Integration in Nigeria’, P. I. Nyam, ‘The National Youth Service Corps as a Tool for National Integration Among Participants in Benue State for 1976/77’, and S. A. Sagir, ‘National Youth Service Corps as an Instrument for National Integration’.

page 640 note 1 Handbook published by the N.Y.S.C. Headquarters Office (Lagos, n.d.), used during the 1975–1976 year, pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

page 640 note 2 ‘Report on the Post-Orientation Service Year, 1973–1974’, pp. 32–3.

page 640 note 3 Ibid. p. 5.

page 641 note 1 Federal Republic of Nigeria, Official Gazette (Lagos), 23 05 1973.Google Scholar It should be noted that the objectives of the Decree embody a quite pessimistic view of the effects of higher education, or, rather, its non-effects.

page 641 note 2 E.g. Ake, Claude, A Theory of Political Integration (Homewood, Ill., 1975),Google ScholarColeman, James S. and Rosberg, Carl G. Jr (eds.), Political Parties and National integration in Tropical Africa (Berkeley, 1964),Google ScholarDeutsch, Karl W., Nationalism and Social Communications: an inquiry into the foundation of nationality (Cambridge, Mass., 1966 edn.),Google ScholarJacob, P. E. and Toscano, J. (eds.), The Integration of Political Communities (New York, 1964),Google Scholar and Walsh, Claude E. (ed.), Modernization (Belmont, 1971 edn.).Google Scholar

For Nigeria, see Dudley, B. J., ‘Military Government and National Integration’, in Smock, D. R. (ed.), The Search for National Integration in Africa (New York, 1975), pp. 28–46;Google ScholarO'Connell, J., ‘Political Integration: the Nigerian case’, in Hazlewood, Arthur (ed.), African Integration and Disintegration (New York, 1967), pp. 129–84;Google ScholarOlorunsola, V., ‘Nigeria’, in Olorunsola, (ed.), The Politics of Cultural Sub-Nationalism (New York, 1972), pp. 5–46;Google Scholar and Sklar, Richard, ‘Political Science and National Integration: a radical approach’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), v, 1, 05 1967, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

page 642 note 1 M. Weiner, ‘Political Integration and Political Development’, in Welch (ed.), op. cit. pp. 180–3.

page 642 note 2 Narain, I., ‘Cultural Pluralism, National Integration and Democracy in India’, in Asian Survey (Berkeley), XVI, 10, 10 1976, p. 913.Google Scholar

page 642 note 3 Barth, F., ‘Introduction’, in Barth, (ed.), Ethnic Group and Boundaries (Oslo, 1969);Google Scholar also Young, Crawford, The Politics of Cultural Pluralism (Madison, 1976), pp. 20 and 44–5.Google Scholar

page 642 note 4 Brass, P. R., ‘Ethnicity and Nationality Formation’, in Ethnicity (New York), III, 3, 09 1976, p. 227.Google Scholar

page 642 note 5 Deutsch, op. cit. pp. 174–5.

page 643 note 1 J. Plamenatz defines this as a ‘lively sense of, or, perhaps, pride in what distinguishes one's own from other people’; ‘Two Types of Nationalism’, in Kamenka, E. (ed.), Nationalism (Canberra, 1973), p. 24.Google Scholar Kamenka, in his contribution ‘Political Nationalism – the Evaluation of an Idea’, stresses the ‘anti-another group’ aspects of nationalism.

page 643 note 2 Emerson, Rupert, From Empire to Nation (Boston, 1960), pp. 95–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 643 note 3 Weiner, loc. cit. pp. 182 and 188.

page 643 note 4 National consciousness does pre-suppose the lessening of cultural diversity, but not its elimination. The essential ingredient for the existence of the nation-state is not a uniformity of cultural or even political values, but the acceptance of an over-arching consensus which prevents the jostle of multiple cultures and loyalties from acquiring the political importance that leads to open conflict.

See the arguments in Connor, W., ‘Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?’, in World Politics (Princeton), XXIV, 3, 04 1972, pp. 319–55;Google ScholarElder, J. W., ‘National Loyalties in a Newly Independent Nation’, in Apter, David E. (ed.), Ideology and Discontent (New York, 1964), pp. 77–92;Google ScholarMarenin, Otwin, ‘Social Mobilization and Individual Identity: a test of two models’, in Journal of African Studies (Berkeley), V, 4, Winter 1978, pp. 381–95;Google ScholarMelson, R. and Wolpe, H., ‘Modernization and the Politics of Communalism: a theoretical perspective’, in The American Political Science Review (Menasha), 64, 12 1970, pp. 1111–30;Google Scholar and Gordon, M., Assimilation in American Life (New York, 1964).Google Scholar

page 644 note 1 Both N.Y.S.C. groups were surveyed in 1976 during their orientation and passing-out camps, each being given the same questionnaire, apart from an additional section for the post-participants, dealing with their experiences and evaluations. The interviews were undertaken by students from Ahmadu Bello University, who distributed the questionnaires at each camp, and then spent 3–5 days getting them completed and collected: 98 out of about 250 at the pre-N.Y.S.C. camp, and 93 Out of about 200 at the post-N.Y.S.C. camp. The selection of respondents, either nation-wide or within each camp, was not random, and the data should be considered with this caution in mind.

Some of the Tables compare pre- and post-N.Y.S.C. attitudes, on the assumption that both groups, being university graduates from various parts of Nigeria, differ little with the exception of their Corps experience. A comparison of age, sex, parental income, size of home community, and first language, shows only minor variations between the two groups. There are some differences, however, as regards religion: pre-Corps, 59 per cent Protestant and 23 per cent Catholic, and post-Corps, per cent Protestant and 39 per cent Catholic; on marital status: pre-Corps, 27 per cent married, and post-Corps, 12 per cent married; and prior work experience: pre-Corps, 66 per cent, and post-Corps, 40 per cent, had worked previously before coming to the university.

An evaluation of the differences, if any, in the responses between the pre- and post-N.Y.S.C. groups needs to consider additional factors, including: personality traits, ideological leanings, other experiences during the year, and levels of national consciousness before joining the Corps. A more extensive study, then, would need to control background variables, establish a baseline of national consciousness attitudes, include control questions for personality and political ideology, consider other influences during the year, and come as close as possible to a nation-wide random selection of respondents, before the impact of the programme and its various aspects on the different components of national consciousness could be assessed. The study and data given below are, obviously, somewhat removed from these conditions, and all arguments should be seen essentially as a step towards better knowledge, and not yet the firm foundations for assaying to assess the impact of the programme. Such findings await a more controlled and extensive study.