Appraisal of the National Youth Service Corps Involvement in Community Development in Selected Local Government Areas in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: This study appraised the impact of the involvement of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in community development in three selected Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Oyo State, Nigeria. It also compared the corps members’ assessment of the impact of the NYSC community development services to that of the community members; and evaluated the level of involvement of the community in the planning and implementation of community development services of the NYSC.
 Methodology: This study was a cross-sectional survey and utilised both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather its primary data. The selected study area included Ogbomosho North, Ido and Akinyele Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Oyo State, Nigeria. A total of community members, 15 community leaders, and 150 serving NYSC corps members were interviewed through questionnaires and key informant interviewData analysis was done using IBM/SPSS software, version 25.0.
 Findings: Data obtained showed that 74.8% of the community members agreed that the development of their respective LGAs have been enhanced by the activities of the various NYSC Community Development Service (CDS) groups; 80% agreed that they could give clear instances where NYSC have contributed to community development in their various LGAs. The most impactful community development activity of the NYSC was Education (79.7%), whilst Environment [Clean water and sanitation] (73.4%) and Healthcare (68.5%) were the second and third, respectively. There was a very weak negative correlation between the community development service preference of the community members and that of the NYSC corps members (r = -.074, p>.05). In terms of community participation, 60.8% of the community members agreed that the NYSC involves the community in the planning of their community development activities, and 61.6% agreed that the NYSC involves the community in the implementation. The discovered challenges confronting the operation of the NYSC CDS as a tool for community development are inadequate finance; corps members’ prioritisation of infrastructure projects over service-based projects; and corps members lack of motivation or enthusiasm in CDS activities.
 Recommendations: The NYSC through its CDS activities has positive impacts in the development of the communities in Oyo state, Nigeria. The NYSC community development services should therefore be sustained nationwide by the Nigerian government.