A member of the House of Representatives representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency, Philip Agbese has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately halt the ongoing reforms in the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.
There has been public debate on the reforms recently approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC.

While some Nigerians are calling for the total scrapping of the scheme, others believe that the reforms may alter the original aim of the scheme.

According to Vanguard, Agbese, in a private letter he issued to the President, described the proposed changes as a dangerous shift that risks undermining the scheme’s core mandate of fostering national unity.

The lawmaker called on the president to urgently convene a multi-disciplinary committee for thorough review of the reforms, warning of potential damage to national security and cross-cultural integration.

Agbese faulted the proposed restructuring of the scheme, particularly the replacement of the traditional khaki uniform with Adire fabric.

“The framing of these changes as ‘innovation’ and ‘modernization’ masks a dangerous shift that risks transforming a vital symbol of national unity into a hyper-stratified administrative exercise.

“The seven major pillars of the approved restructuring—transition to civilian operational leadership, extension of the orientation camp to six weeks, replacement of the traditional khaki uniform with Adire fabric, introduction of a structured three-phase training curriculum, pivot to skills-based deployment, automation of call-up processes, and institutionalization of formal graduation ceremonies—are fundamentally flawed,” he added.

He further stated that the planned replacement of military leadership of the scheme with civilian leadership “is the most disturbing” aspect of it.

Agbese argued that “appointing a civilian Director-General while still relying on military structures for nationwide security creates dangerous fragmentation in the command chain”.