Overcrowded camps, sexual harassment, N400,000 rents: Housing crisis tormenting Nigeria’s corps members

Fifty-two years after its establishment, Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps scheme continues to fail hundreds of thousands of young graduates on one of the most basic fronts — accommodation — with corps members across Abuja, Kaduna, Jos, Kano, Kwara and Abeokuta forced to fend for themselves in expensive, unsafe or entirely unavailable housing markets while surviving on meagre stipends.

From a father in Lagos who sent N600,000 to rescue his daughter from sexual harassment by a host in Abuja, to corps members in Kaduna paying N400,000 for modest self-contained apartments, and Christians in Kano sheltered by a church after being left stranded, the crisis is nationwide and systemic.

According to Vanguard, NYSC Governing Board Chairman Hilliard Etta described the scheme as “faulty,” calling for urgent legal reforms while noting that Nigeria’s graduates “are not employable” and the scheme has failed to achieve its unity objectives.