By Godwin Onuh Odeh
It may be recalled that the recently sacked Director-General of the Natiinal Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Mohammad Fadah took over from the iconic Major-General Shuaibu Ibrahim as the 18th Director-General of NYSC on the 18th of May, 2022. Less than two months after, Brigadier Fadah made a very bad appearance in the publication by the Sahara Reporter on the 13th of July titled: “Nigerian Senate Presidents’ Lawan’s “Stooge” Appointed NYSC Director-General Accused of Fraud”. The emotions and reactions this generated and other issues that came up are yet to cool down prior to the news of his sack from office on the ground of gross “incompetence”, which was broken on the 17th of November, 2022.
The ground of his fall and exit from office appear to have justified the title “NYSC after Iconic Shuaibu Ibrahim: A Place for Patriotic and Creative Leadership”, a response to the said Sahara Reporter’s publication and was published by several outlets. This sad development and experience raises fundamental question of leadership recruitment in NYSC, the character of the persona, leadership performance and the lessons it holds for the in-coming Director-General.
First, is the appointment of Director-General, which Section 5 paragraph “i, ii and iii” of the NYSC ACT 2004 CAP 84 states, thus:
There shall be a for the Service Corps, a Director-General who shall be appointed by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces; The Director-General shall be the Chief Executive and shall be charged with the general responsibility for the matters affecting the day-to-day running of the service corps, and The Director-General shall be assisted by Directors at the National Directorate Headquarters and State Coordinators at the State Headquarters.
In short, the Director General is a member of the Governing Board of the Directorate, which is made up of the following order:
a Chairman;
one representative of the of the committee of Vice-Chancellors , one representative of the committee of Rectors of Polytechnics, one representative of the Chief Army Staff, one representative of the Inspector-General of Police, one representative of the Nigerian Employer Consultative Association, three other persons, one of whom shall be a woman and the Director-General.
From the above, it is glaring that the scheme is well structured and the appointment of Director-General is prerogative of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. A lot of politics usually comes into play in the process that produces the Director-General that sometimes if care is not taken, merit and competence would be sacrificed at the altar of mediocrity.
While politics may be allowed, it appears former Military Assistants to past Director-Generals who are at the rank for such appointment, should be given more attention and consideration. This might be one of the challenges of the just exited DG who in the view of several NYSC staff, doesn’t know the workings or the in and out of NYSC and was not even ready to learn.
On this note, Major R. Aliyu (now Lt. Colonel), the MA to Shuaibu Ibrahim should be kept under constant watch as he progresses in his career and if appointed in his own time, would do not less than his boss. Added to the appointment list and protocol, is the need to have unalloyed inputs of an excellent out-going or immediate DG on the appointment of who succeeds him for progressive and sustaining leadership. If such fails, the recommender takes the full blame and since no one would like to take such blame, the quality of NYSC leadership would be enhanced and good policies and legacies sustained.
The second angle is the character of the persona, Brigadier-General Fadah and his performance. Some comment may be reserved here for some reasons. However, some view him as kindhearted, while contrary opinion outweighs that. He was seen as a stooge, a man who lacked clear focus and vision for the scheme and failed to build and sustain the laudable achievements of his immediate-predecessor; a man who fought almost everyone including the Management and the Board and a grossly incompetent man.
It is further argued that no one knew much about him in the military until his sudden appearance in the NYSC Leadership. From the chronicle of NYSC leadership, exception of Reverend Okrunamade (2000-2000) and Police Commissioner Ewokan (2001-2001) who were from non-military milieu, Fadah and Brigadier-General K O. Ogunkoya (1999-2000 and 2002-2002) were the military officers who had the briefest moment in the leadership of the scheme since 1973. While for no clearly defined reason Brigadier-General Ogunkoya was brought back in 2002, one don’t see that history repeating itself as Brigadier-General Fada was remove on the very strong term of “incompetence” which even the military as a noble profession, should perceive as a fundamental slap on their face.
This un-ceremonial removal appeared to have given further voice to the argument for demilitarization and democratization of the appointment of the Director-General of the scheme to deepen civil-military relation in Nigeria.
The question at this point is, are there lessons for the incoming Director-General of NYSC? “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of History is the most important of all lessons that history has to teach”. Aldous Huxley made the above statement after the world was badly battered by the two world wars of the 20th century. It may be stressed that the lessons are not just for the in-coming Director-General, but even for those particularly for Mr. President that has the power to hire and fire DGs. He should review the process that produced Brigadier-General Fadah and guard against such in subsequent appointments in a way that merit and competence are not sacrificed at the altar of ethnicity, religion, region, party affiliations and political interest.
For the in-coming DG, he should know that NYSC after Shuaibu Ibrahim would only accept and tolerate competencies, particularly creative and patriotic military officer and no longer a business as usual given the high leadership standard he set and left.
This was what Fada fell short of and was summarily pronounced incompetent and removed without much ado. The in-coming also should be wary of sycophants who will come with varying stories to buy favour. Furthermore, welfare of corps members and staffs should be held at the highest esteem. This was what Shuaibu knew, avoided and did as former Military Assistant to a Director-General and it paid off.
In conclusion, whatever gaps the ceremonious exit of Major-General Shuaibu Ibrahim might have created arising from his charismatic leadership style and performance, NYSC Staff as always, should cooperate with whoever emerged the next Director-General notwithstanding the processes that might have produced him.
However, as noted few months ago, the fact remains that “NYSC after Major-General Ibrahim, is no more an oasis to rest and enjoy as previously was, but a place for a particularly patriotic military officers of high premium and creative minds capable of addressing the multifaceted challenges of the teeming graduate youths and of the nation”.
On this, Brigadier General Fada, has proved his inability to step into his predecessor’s shoes and wear. In all, all the best to the in-coming man at the helm of affairs of the “leading light of youth organization in Africa” and the “best organized national youth service in the world”.
*Dr. Godwin Onuh Odeh, Specialist in NYSC and Youth Studies, Department of History, Sokoto State University, Sokoto.
