Nigerian singer and politician Banky W has urged the Federal Government to make the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme optional.
The singer stated this in an interview with Channels Television, where he said that most of the youths who engage in the scheme might actually not need it, therefore they devise means to get their exemption letters. He asserted that the Nigerian constitution is amended so that the scheme will not be compulsory anymore.
He said: “At least half of the young people who do NYSC might not need it. You have people that go for NYSC and they just sign a paper somewhere and give somebody money, so that they say they have it and then go off and do whatever
”Is that program really achieving what it was meant to? Can we consider amending the constitution so that we can say that this thing is no longer compulsory, but optional?”
The 41-year-old singer and politician had contested the seat in 2019 on the platform of the Modern Democratic Party (MDP) but lost to Babajide Obanikoro of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
On April 1, 2022, Banky announced he has joined the People’s Democracy Party (PDP) to contest for the Eti-Osa federal constituency, Lagos at the House of Representatives.
