The National Youth Service Corps’ (NYSC) classic khaki uniform will be replaced by locally made adire materials, according to the federal government, as part of changes meant to reposition the programme.
The announcement was made a few days after significant changes to the one-year national service programme were authorised by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to increase its effectiveness.
Ayodele Olawande, minister of youth development, stated in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday that the revised NYSC uniform would be created from Adire textiles to help Nigeria’s textile sector and promote locally produced goods.
“It’s adire. So, Adire is being produced in Nigeria. We have them in Ogun, we have them in Kwara, we have textile industry. Let’s put our money back into the country,” he said.
After the weekly FEC meeting on Monday, Olawande said the council retained the one-year duration of the scheme while approving seven major reforms, including digitalisation, a change in the leadership structure from military to civilians, and a redesigned NYSC uniform.
The minister also said the reforms would introduce a more structured deployment process for corps members based on the choices and processes completed during orientation camp.
“After you are leaving the camp, you are not just posted to a school just because NYSC wants you to be in school but because of the process you followed when in camp. So, that is going to give a framework of where you are going to be posted to,” he said.
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On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu said the NYSC would prioritise indigenes, residents and graduates of institutions in states considered high-risk during deployment as part of the reforms to make the scheme safer and more effective.
In a statement posted on his X account, the president said his administration was reforming the scheme to make it “safer and smarter” for graduates.
Olawande said the new deployment arrangement would address concerns raised by parents and prospective corps members while making postings more practical.
“If you have interest that you want to go to the North-East why not, but if you don’t have interest, instead of redeploying you, paying people for camp, doing all those funny things, we said no, let us look at it and say who are those in that area, that can reside in those geographical areas and still give us the kind of number we are looking for since we are saying NYSC should be more impactful. So, that is what we are talking about,” he said.
The reforms also introduce 11 specialised streams for corps members and a six-week orientation camp arrangement.
