On 9 June, 2026, the Presidency announced: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the establishment of a Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness and Emerging Public Health Threats and ordered the immediate release of ₦10 billion as emergency intervention funding.” You remember that statement? Today is 20 July. Thank God there has been no Ebola outbreak. But where is the ₦10 billion? Spent? Unspent? Where is it?

A voice told me that the President and his Presidency are very straightforward in money matters. They will explain. We should not be too much in a hurry.

I watched a guest and his host discuss the scandal of the PFIPC, the popular ‘fictitious’ federal agency, on an Arise Television programme two Tuesdays ago. They agreed that there might be more than the PFIPC ghost in the Government of Nigeria.

“When you see one rat in your house, begin a thorough search,” the guest said while answering a question.

“That is true. Rats do not live alone; they live in colonies,” his host replied.

What sounded like an ordinary exchange on television carried extraordinary wisdom. If one fictitious agency could burrow its way into the machinery of government, occupy offices, receive public officials and secure a place in the federal budget, it is only sensible to ask whether there are other rats in the house.

It was that question that sent me to the website of the Budget Office of the Federation, where I got the 2,790-page 2026 budget details document. I skimmed through it again and again. This reporter was looking for more rats. And did he find any?

The 2026 Federal Government budget runs to 2,790 pages. It is a very big house, too big not to have rodents in it. Like a crime scene waiting for investigators, between its covers are provisions that challenge logic, statutory mandates and even common sense. One of the loudest exhibits is the budget of the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS). If budgets could blush, this one would.

The NBAIS is an education regulator. Its legal remit is to develop curricula, conduct examinations, certify qualifications and ensure standards in Arabic and Islamic education. Yet the Board, at its headquarters, has a personnel allocation of ₦18.05 billion in the 2026 budget. Pause there.

That personnel bill of the NBAIS exceeds the entire personnel budget of the National Examinations Council (NECO), the body that conducts nationwide examinations for millions of Nigerian children. It is more than four times the personnel allocation of the National Universities Commission (NUC), which regulates every university in the federation. It is almost ten times the personnel budget of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), the regulator of Nigeria’s polytechnics, monotechnics and technical colleges. It is nearly fourteen times that of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).

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Before I am accused of peddling rumours and falsehoods, let me quickly exhibit what I saw in the budget, including the pages where I saw them:

The National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) has a personnel allocation of ₦18.05 billion (page 1601 of the 2026 budget). The National Examinations Council (NECO) has ₦15.53 billion (page 1593); Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), ₦6.364 billion (page 1593); National Universities Commission (NUC), ₦4.216 billion (page 1821); National Library of Nigeria, ₦2.360 billion (page 1593); National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), ₦1.843 billion (page 1601); and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), ₦1.306 billion (page 1593). The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) is responsible for developing the national curriculum used by virtually every school in Nigeria. It has a personnel budget of about ₦4 billion (page 1593). NBAIS has more than four times as much.

My friend in accounting told me that, in public budgeting, personnel cost is the amount appropriated to pay the people who work for an institution. It is the agency’s payroll: the money budgeted for salaries, wages, allowances, pensions and other statutory employment benefits. That naturally raises a question. How many workers does the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies have in its employment to justify a personnel bill of more than ₦18 billion? How large is its establishment? How many are academics, how many are administrators, and how many are support staff?

Again, on page 1174 of the 2026 document is Project ERGP12231866. It is named “Repair of Ijebu–Remo Road in Ogun State” with an allocation of ₦70 million. The President is a Yoruba man. He knows there is no such town or community called Ijebu Remo, and there is no road so named. Ijebu Remo is a whole district of 33 towns connected by several roads. So, what is that insertion about? Can I safely suggest that the budget describes a phantom road?

And ₦70 million? At today’s cost of road construction, how many centimetres of road can that amount repair? The sum is so paltry that one wonders whether it is there to give a few hungry rodents something to nibble.

Almost from the first page to the last, many such nibble-sized allocations are sprinkled across the budget plate like crumbs deliberately dropped for the palate of miserable rats.

Strange things like the above nudge one to tell the President that he has more to investigate than the notorious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.

One good thing that has come out of the ugly saga of the fictitious government agency is that it has forced some of us to read the budget details for the first time. I had never paid much attention to that annual ritual, attractive in figures, very ugly in implementation.

We spent the whole of the last month hunting a curious ghost haunting the Presidency of Nigeria. It is called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC). Who coined that name? And what did ‘they’ think it meant? Whatever it means, what the matter is with the ghost and the ghost catchers, the whole world knows already. What is missing are the ingredients used in cooking the broth that has set their house on fire.

President Bola Tinubu has ordered an investigation. He should. But is that enough? Rats are voracious creatures, forever nibbling and gnawing, constantly eating and chewing, and hiding. We learn this in Ben Okri’s The Famished Road.

If the eyes are attentive enough, they will see the nose with all its structures. If the President would go back and read the budget he signed into law in December 2025, he might well summon Ṣàngó, the god of thunder, to come and sit in judgment.

Every budget tells a story. This one reads like a crime novel illustrated with figures. Yet the Senate would not probe questionable entries discovered in there. What is it protecting? The Senate is either afraid of its shadows or it is confident in its perfidy.

On Saturday, 11 July 2026, the Daily Trust carried a report headlined: “Mandate hijack: How 16 MDAs got N206bn for constituency projects.” Earlier, on Tuesday, 7 July, the newspaper led with: “How Almajiri Commission included Ogun, Ekiti Roads in N8.4bn Projects.”

The first paragraph of Daily Trust’s Tuesday story reads: “The National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education (NCAOOSCE) is facing scrutiny over the allocation of ₦8.4 billion for road infrastructure projects in Ogun, Ekiti, and Katsina states, which are outside its educational mandate. The commission has denied responsibility, blaming the National Assembly for inserting these ‘off-mandate’ constituency projects into its 2026 budget, sparking criticism that these allocations misappropriate funds for vulnerable children.”

Whatever Daily Trust uncovered is not a one-off anomaly. It points to a broader pattern in the 2026 budget. The National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS), whose statutory mandate is to regulate Arabic and Islamic education, also got additional muscles to compete with the Federal Ministry of Works in building multibillion-naira roads. NBAIS is allocated funds to construct a 1.5-kilometre road in Ugwolawo, Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State. It is also to continue the construction of Dantata Road/Saint Louis Road in Kano Central Senatorial District.

More than 2,500 years ago, the ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop, told the story of The Cat and the Mice. It begins with a simple line: “There was once a house that was overrun with mice.” I fear our budget house may have a similar problem. It suspiciously has rats in overwhelming numbers.

So, as the President is investigating one rat, he may soon discover that what confronts him is not a lone intruder but a universe of colonies of mice. If the search is thorough enough, it may also reveal that what the house requires is not just the removal of one rodent but a complete fumigation from the rafters to the basement; from the Villa to the National Assembly.

“A rat catcher has no brothers; a rat catcher is alone,” wrote Viktor Dyk about a century ago. The President can use this probe to sponge the dirt out of his government. But there will be strong resistance to such a search. Rat breeders will remind the President of the story of the farmer who burnt down his entire yam barn because he wanted to catch a mouse. If the President is not the master rodent breeder himself, he will ignore them and press on with the search. We wait to see.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

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By Sylvester Udemezue

INTRODUCTION:
The Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) recently recorded what many observers have described as a significant milestone in the evolution of the Association’s electoral process by publishing, on a branch-by-branch basis, the names of all members who participated in the 2026 NBA National Elections.

The published records include each voter’s voting reference number and timestamp while deliberately redacting sensitive personal information such as telephone numbers, email addresses and Supreme Court enrolment details in compliance with applicable data privacy laws. According to the ECNBA, the initiative is intended to enhance transparency, promote confidence in the integrity of the electoral process, and enable independent verification of voter participation without compromising members’ privacy. The Committee maintained that the publication reflects its continuing commitment to conducting elections that are free, fair, credible and accountable.

THE ECNBA DESERVES APPLAUSE:
This bold initiative deserves sincere commendation. By publishing the list of those who voted, together with their voting reference numbers and timestamps while protecting confidential personal information, the ECNBA has significantly enhanced the transparency, credibility and auditability of the NBA electoral process. The published records make it possible for voting activity to be independently scrutinised and verified, thereby substantially reducing doubts about voter participation and strengthening public confidence in the integrity of the elections.

Particularly commendable is the Committee’s decision to transparently disclose that the published register was arranged in chronological order of voting and to expressly identify a test account that should be excluded from the official vote tally, thereby demonstrating an admirable commitment to openness and accountability. This represents a remarkable improvement in the administration of NBA elections and deserves the appreciation of every lawyer committed to deepening transparency, electoral integrity and institutional credibility within the Nigerian Bar Association.

TRANSPARENCY SHOULD CONTINUE TO EVOLVE:
Transparency builds trust, and trust is the currency upon which every democratic institution survives. Thus, having congratulated the ECNBA, I respectfully wish to offer what I consider the next logical reform. In future NBA National Elections, particularly the election into the office of President, the ECNBA must consider publishing not merely the total votes scored by each candidate, but also the voting pattern showing which voter voted for which candidate. I appreciate that this suggestion may initially sound controversial. Indeed, many lawyers instinctively equate every election with secret balloting. Yet that assumption deserves closer examination.

ELECTIONS ARE NOT ALL THE SAME; THE NBA IS NOT A SOVEREIGN STATE NBA:
There is an important distinction between governmental political elections and elections conducted by a professional association. The NBA is a voluntary professional association governed by its Constitution and by rules made by its members. Accordingly, the NBA possesses considerable latitude to determine the level of transparency appropriate for its internal democratic processes, provided members are informed in advance and the rules are applied equally. If members know beforehand that votes in presidential elections will be open rather than secret, each voter simply casts his or her vote with that understanding. There is nothing inherently undemocratic about an open ballot if the governing rules clearly provide for it.

ACCOUNTABILITY IS A DEMOCRATIC VALUE:
Leadership is about accountability. Voting is also an exercise of responsibility. Those who seek to determine who leads over 200,000 Nigerian lawyers should ordinarily have no difficulty standing publicly behind their choices. An open voting record would produce several institutional benefits. First, it would discourage allegations of manipulation because every vote could be independently verified. Second, it would eliminate endless speculation after each round of NBA elections. Third, it would deepen confidence in the announced results. Fourth, it would make the electoral process almost completely auditable.

TRANSPARENCY AND PRIVACY CAN COEXIST:
I fully acknowledge that the ECNBA’s current electronic voting framework places strong emphasis on ballot secrecy and assures members that individual voting choices are inaccessible to ECNBA officials and third parties. That assurance is appropriate under the present rules. My suggestion is therefore not a criticism of the existing system. Rather, it is a proposal for future constitutional and policy consideration. If the NBA, after wide consultation, concludes that greater openness better serves institutional accountability (and I respectfully suggest it perfectly does, especially considering the current state of affairs in the profession), rules can be amended accordingly. Professional bodies around the world continually refine their electoral systems as institutional needs evolve.

LESSONS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS:
Interestingly, transparency in voting is not unknown elsewhere. For example, the American National Basketball Association publicly releases not only award voting totals but also the individual ballots submitted by each media voter, allowing the public to know exactly how every voter voted. That model demonstrates that openness can coexist with credibility and public confidence where the governing framework so provides. The NBA can study such practices and determine whether similar transparency would strengthen confidence in its own elections.

A PROPOSAL WORTH DEBATING:
This recommendation is not intended to favour any candidate or any political tendency within the Nigerian Bar Association. It is offered purely in the interest of institutional development. Great institutions grow because they are willing to interrogate existing practices and improve upon them. Whether the NBA ultimately retains secret balloting or adopts a more transparent model should emerge from robust constitutional debate, informed consultation and collective wisdom. What is most important is that the conversation should begin to take take place.

CONCLUSION:
The ECNBA has taken a significant step by publishing comprehensive voting participation records. That initiative deserves the appreciation of every lawyer committed to electoral integrity. My respectful recommendation is that the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association should now begin a thoughtful conversation on whether future presidential elections would not be even more transparent and credible if members could also know how votes were cast. Democracy flourishes where transparency, accountability and trust reinforce one another.

The Nigerian Bar Association has always aspired to lead by example. Its electoral processes should continue to reflect that aspiration. Meanwhile, there is no denying that the NBA is currently facing very tough times. Such tought times demand tough measures. If those measures are what it takes to reform and strengthen the NBA’s electoral system, restore its integrity, and rebuild the confidence of all stakeholders, then so be it. As the timeless legal maxim reminds us: Fiat justitia, ruat caelum: Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.

Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue (Udems)
Proctor,
The Reality Ministry of Truth, Law and Justice (TRM)
08021365545.
[email protected]
(20 July 2026)

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By Max Amuchie | The Sunday Stew

In the 7 June 2026 article which marked the formal unveiling of the Decoupling Sovereignty Index (DSI), I articulated a defining institutional proposition. The launch of the DSI was presented not merely as the introduction of a new analytical instrument, but as another milestone in the evolution of Sundiata Post into what I described as a dual engine architectural powerhouse. That statement marked an important transition. It signalled that Sundiata Post was no longer to be understood solely as a digital news platform, but as an institution consciously integrating journalism, strategic intelligence and scholarly research within a single operational framework.

The proposition advanced on that occasion was straightforward. On the front end, Sundiata Post would continue to function as a digital-first, high-velocity news organisation, reporting events, investigating public issues, analysing developments and informing citizens through timely, credible journalism. On the back end, the Sundiata Post Intelligence Unit (SPIU) would operate as a proprietary knowledge engine, generating original research, developing analytical frameworks, curating datasets, publishing working papers and preserving institutional knowledge through globally recognised scholarly repositories.
This series develops that proposition into a formal institutional architecture.
The first part in this series argued that the newsroom of the twenty-first century must evolve beyond the production of daily news to become a knowledge institution. The second situated that proposition within a broader intellectual tradition, demonstrating through the works of Walter Lippmann, Hannah Arendt, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo that journalism has historically served not merely as a conveyor of information but as a builder of public reason, democratic culture and national development.

Having established the philosophical foundations, we now turn to the question of institutional design. Every enduring institution requires more than a compelling vision; it requires an architecture capable of translating principles into sustained practice. Ideas alone do not create institutions. Institutions endure because they are deliberately designed to produce consistent outcomes, preserve organisational memory, adapt to changing environments and outlive their founders.

The Sundiata Post Model is therefore built upon what I call the Dual Engine Architecture. Simply stated, the Dual Engine Architecture is an institutional design in which a Media Operations Engine generates public value through journalism while a Knowledge Operations Engine transforms that journalistic enterprise into a permanent system of knowledge production.

The first engine is the Media Operations Engine—the visible newsroom that performs the essential functions of journalism through reporting, verification, investigation, editing, publication and audience engagement. The second is the Knowledge Operations Engine—the institutional infrastructure through which research is conducted, theories are formulated, datasets are curated, policy knowledge is generated and intellectual assets are systematically preserved.
These engines are neither parallel organisations nor competing departments. They are interdependent components of a single institutional system. Journalism supplies the observations, evidence and questions that shape the research agenda. Research, in turn, enriches journalism with deeper context, analytical rigour and conceptual innovation. The output of one continuously strengthens the other, creating an institutional intelligence cycle in which news informs knowledge and knowledge improves news.

The significance of this architecture extends beyond Sundiata Post itself. It offers a framework for reimagining the modern newsroom in an era defined by rapid technological change, information overload and declining public trust. Rather than treating journalism as a transient response to the daily news cycle, the Dual Engine Architecture positions the newsroom as the public-facing component of a broader knowledge enterprise—one that simultaneously informs the present, preserves the past and contributes original ideas to the future.

The Media Operations Engine

The first pillar of the Sundiata Post Model is the Media Operations Engine. This is the institution’s public-facing operational system—the visible enterprise through which Sundiata Post fulfils its journalistic, commercial and public engagement responsibilities. It represents the front end of the organisation, integrating editorial excellence with audience development, revenue generation and public-facing institutional activities.
At its core, the Media Operations Engine performs the traditional functions of a professional news organisation. It identifies stories of public importance, deploys reporters to the field, verifies facts through rigorous editorial procedures, produces multimedia content, provides analysis and commentary, and disseminates information across digital platforms. These activities remain the foundation of the institution’s commitment to informing society accurately, independently and responsibly.

Beyond the newsroom, however, the Media Operations Engine encompasses the broader business of media. It includes advertising and brand partnerships, digital marketing, audience growth strategies, subscription and membership initiatives where applicable, commercial publishing, multimedia production, and other revenue-generating activities necessary to sustain editorial independence. Within the Sundiata Post Model, commercial operations are not peripheral to journalism; they are carefully managed institutional functions that provide the financial capacity required for long-term public-interest reporting and knowledge production.

The engine also extends the institution’s public engagement beyond daily news publishing. Conferences, annual lectures, policy dialogues, public forums, media masterclasses, leadership summits and other convening platforms become integral components of the media enterprise. These engagements transform the organisation from a publisher of information into a convener of ideas, creating spaces where journalists, scholars, policymakers, business leaders and citizens can deliberate on issues of national and continental importance. In doing so, the Media Operations Engine strengthens the institution’s civic presence while simultaneously generating new networks, partnerships and editorial opportunities.

Within the Sundiata Post Model, the Media Operations Engine performs an additional function that distinguishes it from conventional news organisations. It serves as the institution’s principal observational system. Every news report, investigative assignment, interview, audience interaction, conference discussion and field observation constitutes more than a discrete media product. Collectively, they generate the empirical evidence, public conversations and emerging questions that feed the institution’s knowledge infrastructure.
In many conventional media organisations, these valuable intellectual assets dissipate with the passing of the news cycle. The Sundiata Post Model rejects this linear conception of journalism. Instead, every verified report, public engagement and editorial initiative is regarded as a potential contribution to a cumulative institutional intelligence system.

Accordingly, the Media Operations Engine performs four interconnected functions. First, it informs the public through credible journalism. Second, it sustains the institution through commercially responsible media operations. Third, it convenes society by creating platforms for dialogue, learning and policy engagement. Fourth, it continuously generates the empirical observations and strategic questions that become the raw material for the Knowledge Operations Engine.
The Media Operations Engine is therefore far more than a newsroom. It is the institution’s interface with society—observing events, engaging audiences, building relationships, generating revenue and producing the empirical foundation upon which the Sundiata Post Model’s broader knowledge enterprise is constructed.

The Knowledge Operations Engine

If the Media Operations Engine is the public face of the Sundiata Post Model, the Knowledge Operations Engine is its intellectual core. It is the institutional infrastructure through which information is transformed into knowledge, knowledge into analytical frameworks, and analytical frameworks into enduring intellectual assets. While the front end responds to the immediacy of events, the back end seeks to understand their underlying structures, causes and long-term implications.

The Knowledge Operations Engine is anchored by the Sundiata Post Intelligence Unit (SPIU), which serves as the institution’s research and strategic intelligence hub. It is responsible for designing and executing research programmes, developing original concepts and theories, constructing analytical indices, curating datasets, producing policy papers, publishing working papers and peer-reviewed scholarship, maintaining institutional standards for methodology, research quality and knowledge governance, and preserving institutional knowledge through globally recognised academic repositories.

In this architecture, research is not an adjunct to journalism but an integral institutional function.

Unlike conventional newsroom research desks, whose work is often confined to supporting daily editorial production, the Knowledge Operations Engine pursues an independent programme of knowledge creation. It identifies recurring patterns across time, interrogates complex governance and security challenges, develops explanatory models, and subjects those models to empirical testing. The objective is not merely to explain individual events but to contribute original intellectual frameworks capable of advancing scholarly and policy debates.

The engine is also responsible for the stewardship of institutional memory. Research datasets, methodological notes, interview archives, conceptual papers, technical documentation and analytical outputs are systematically organised, preserved and made retrievable. Rather than allowing institutional knowledge to disappear with personnel changes or the passing of the news cycle, the Sundiata Post Model treats these materials as strategic assets that accumulate value over time. This commitment to preservation transforms the institution from a producer of content into a custodian of knowledge.

A defining characteristic of the Knowledge Operations Engine is its commitment to openness and scholarly engagement. Where appropriate, research outputs are deposited in recognised academic repositories, enabling scrutiny, replication, citation and further development by the global research community. By exposing its analytical frameworks and datasets to independent examination, the institution embraces the principle that durable knowledge grows stronger through critical evaluation rather than institutional isolation.

The Knowledge Operations Engine therefore performs four interconnected functions. First, it converts empirical observations into structured knowledge through rigorous research and analysis. Second, it generates original intellectual products—including theories, indices, policy frameworks and methodological innovations—that extend beyond the immediate demands of journalism. Third, it preserves and manages the institution’s intellectual capital as a permanent strategic resource. Fourth, it projects African or Global South scholarship into global academic and policy ecosystems, ensuring that ideas developed within the newsroom contribute to international conversations on governance, security, development and media innovation.

The Knowledge Operations Engine is therefore not simply a research department. It is the institutional mechanism through which journalism acquires permanence, evidence is transformed into understanding, and a media organisation evolves into a knowledge-producing institution. Together with the Media Operations Engine, it completes the Dual Engine Architecture that lies at the heart of the Sundiata Post Model.
If the preceding sections explain how the Sundiata Post Model works, an equally important question remains: Is this architecture unique to Sundiata Post, or can it become a framework for journalism more broadly?

Beyond Sundiata Post

The Sundiata Post Model is proposed as a universal institutional framework for twenty-first-century journalism. Although it originated within Sundiata Post, it is not conceived as an organisation-specific model. Rather, it offers a general institutional architecture that can be adapted by news organisations operating in diverse economic, technological, political and cultural environments.
In this formulation, Sundiata Post is not the model; it is the founding implementation and proof of concept—a living institutional demonstration that such an architecture is both practicable and sustainable. The relationship is similar to the Toyota Production System, which began inside a single company but evolved into a global management framework adopted by organisations far beyond the automotive industry. Likewise, the Sundiata Post Model is intended to transcend the organisation in which it was first developed.
Its long-term significance will therefore be determined not solely by its success at Sundiata Post, but by its capacity to be tested, adapted, replicated and refined by media organisations across different societies. The true measure of any institutional model is not that it works for its originator, but that it enables others to build stronger institutions of their own. If the Sundiata Post Model ultimately proves capable of helping news organisations across Africa, the Global South and beyond become enduring knowledge institutions, then its greatest contribution will not be what it achieved for Sundiata Post, but what it made possible for journalism itself.

Trust is sacred. Stay seasoned

•Dr. Max Amuchie is a Scholar-Journalist, Media CEO, Lead Researcher at the Sundiata Post Intelligence Unit (SPIU), and an Expert Member and Peer Reviewer at ScienceOpen. He is the architect of The Insecurity Triad framework for African security analysis as well as the Trinity of Sovereignty Decay (formerly Trinity of State Decay) theory, and the Decoupling Sovereignty Index (DSI)—original frameworks for understanding, categorising, and measuring conflict, state decay, and sovereignty in the Global South.
X: @MaxAmuchie | Email: [email protected]

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MONDAY PHILIPS EKPE writes that Nigeria’s national youth service needs well-considered reforms, not capricious changes

Federal Government’s recent pronouncement of its plan to reform the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has generated mixed reactions, understandably. The decision is not surprising, coming from an administration that loves to be seen as reform-minded. On a good day, attempts at introducing changes, especially result-oriented ones, are progressive and should be supported by those who care for advancement. But these are unusual times. Nigerians have had to live more with flamboyant rhetoric and serially broken promises than actual desirable deliverables.

Scepticism about government’s intentions and capacity to transform the NYSC into a more actualised programme has, therefore, come to me naturally, like countless other compatriots. For one, the youth scheme is too important to be sent to a surgical ward after what seems to be the government waking up from the wrong side of the bed. Some sort of a fire-brigade operation. In coming up with this bogus idea only less than one year to the end of its term in office, President Bola Tinubu’s government has acted like some of its predecessors. Presidents and governors assume power and start conducting the affairs of state as if their re-election is a given. Soon, “Four Plus Four; Go on Straight; No shaking” billboards will spring up nationwide.

It’s certain that Tinubu and his team are not ready for any meaningful shot at transforming this enduring, impactful national institution that has existed for 53 years. Even without the whistle, politicking has begun in the race towards next year’s general election. Politics has since taken the front seat. And good governance – that dream of lovers of democracy – is jaundiced. So, initiating such a momentous exercise at this time is, at best, insincere.

Nothing demonstrates the low quality of thought invested in this idea than the Freudian slip of the Minister of State for Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, the other day when he excitedly informed his audience of the plan to replace the corps’ khaki dressing with “adire”, a fabric designed and used mostly by people from the western part of the country. Of course, a nation already divided along ethnic, regional and religious lines has no difficulty in rising against the very concept.

Although the minister later tried to correct himself, the message had already gone out to the agitated public that the move to reform the national service might be another wild imagination which, if not properly interrogated, could scale through our weak legislative processes and become law. Not being alarmist here. We haven’t forgotten. Changing the country’s national anthem to the old one once existed mainly in the mind of President Tinubu. But in a matter of hours, it was railroaded through the National Assembly successfully.

This new attempt needn’t suffer the same fate. When General Yakubu Gowon’s regime conceived the NYSC three years after the Nigerian Civil War, it was aimed at fostering unity, integration and cohesion. It was meant to further the cause of the then Federal Military Government’s post-war programme of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. Young men and women, fresh from tertiary academic institutions, would be ready tools in facilitating the healing of a severely traumatised and brutalised nation. That was the starting point and, somehow, even with the hurdles the service has encountered, it has also recorded remarkable wins down the years at both individual and group levels.

Many marriages owe their origins to NYSC. Lasting friendships too. People have relocated to areas they never thought of before their national assignments. Better appreciation of other people’s cultures in numerous instances is also traceable to the one-year experience. Prejudices have fallen off some persons who had held them closely like badges. Much needed community development projects have been embarked upon by energetic, purposeful corps members, many times with minimal external assistance. And many other pluses.

Some of the experiences I had inside the Orientation Camp of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) at the Federal College of Education in Pankshin, Plateau State and my primary assignment have remained fresh nearly four decades after. They have strengthened my faith in it. Camping then lasted about eight weeks and the monthly “allowee” was N200/250. While at the camp, rain fell substantially and intermittently and even obstructed some of the activities.

One day, a simple but instructive incident occurred. In a gathering of about seven, one corps member from the western part of the country exclaimed, “Ha! rain de fall for north?” (Does rain fall in the north?). What happened next looked choreographed. One by one, everyone walked away from the young man who had only expressed his surprise. Difficult to say exactly what that snub did to him. But he was clearly a victim of stark ignorance and myopic views about his own country. For a graduate who ought to know at least a bit better, that wasn’t funny.

Yet another episode opened me up to the layers of prejudices that had, and still have unfortunately, mentally enslaved Nigerians to the detriment of mutual respect and national harmony. A colleague from the south visited the camp clinic. He needed solution for his chest pain. By his personal account to me, he couldn’t get them from the two youth corps doctors whom he first approached. Eventually, it was a graduate of University of Maiduguri, a northerner, who attended to him satisfactorily. For him, that encounter was a critical learning curve, a game-changer.

The benefits derivable from the scheme are indeed priceless and shouldn’t be toyed with. It’s welcoming that the government is not warming up to scrap it. The official statement on the rationale for the announced intent to tinker with the service reads in part: “The issue of safety of corps members, infrastructural deficits, and the broader question about the relevance of the scheme in an increasingly dynamic socio-economic landscape are some of the challenges faced. But these also present opportunities that demand urgent, visionary, and determined action.”

That action shouldn’t include cosmetic modifications. The present uniforms are good enough, only, perhaps, need quality enhancement. Graduation being proposed to take the place of passing out is clearly misplaced. Because of the absence of paramilitary training in most of our higher learning citadels, more spaces should be created for it, especially considering our security predicament at the moment. And no rush to civilianise the programme in the name of democratising it, please!

Any innovation that would be injected into the NYSC now requires tact and diligence and should focus on the present crop of graduates. Born into the internet/social media world, most of them are frustrated by the recklessness and lack of vision of today’s leaders. Many of them believe that education is a scam. The prospects truly appear bleak, sadly. And their demography is massive. For such a strategic establishment, whimsical foundational or structural operations would be truly tragic.

Ekpe, PhD, is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board
X: @monday_ekpe2

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

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