By Emem Nsini-Godwin
Corps members may soon swap their iconic khaki uniforms for Adire as the Federal Government moves to overhaul the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
The Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, announced the planned uniform change on Thursday, July 2, 2026, during an appearance on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief. He said the initiative is aimed at promoting local production and ensuring government spending benefits the Nigerian economy.
“It’s Adire. Adire is being produced in Nigeria. We have them in Ogun, we have them in Kwara, we have textile industries. Let’s put our money back into the country,” Olawande said.
According to the minister, the switch is more than a cosmetic change. By sourcing NYSC uniforms from local textile producers, the government hopes to stimulate Nigeria’s textile industry, create jobs, and support indigenous craftsmanship.
The proposed uniform change is one of several sweeping reforms approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) earlier this week as part of efforts to modernise the 53-year-old scheme.
Among the key changes is an extension of the NYSC orientation programme from three weeks to six weeks. The expanded camp will be divided into three phases: civic responsibility and national values, career mapping and financial literacy, and a structured career development segment where corps members will engage directly with employers and other stakeholders.
The reforms will also replace the traditional Passing Out Parade (POP) with a graduation ceremony. In addition, a national grading and certification system will be introduced to standardise training and assessment across orientation camps nationwide.
Posting of corps members will also become more skills-based. Rather than the largely random deployment process currently in place, participants will be assigned based on their academic qualifications, career interests, and the pathway they follow during orientation.
“After you are leaving the camp, you are not just posted to a school just because NYSC wants you to be in school but because of the process you followed when in camp. So, that is going to give a framework of where you are going to be posted to,” Olawande explained.
The minister also said the reforms are designed to address concerns surrounding deployment by giving prospective corps members greater consideration in the posting process.
“If you have interest that you want to go to the North-East, why not? But if you don’t have interest, instead of redeploying you, paying people for camp, doing all those funny things, we said no, let us look at it and say who are those in that area that can reside in those geographical areas and still give us the kind of number we are looking for since we are saying NYSC should be more impactful. So, that is what we are talking about,” he said.
One aspect of the reform package has generated debate online following reports that the day-to-day leadership of the NYSC would be transferred to a civilian administrator. Some commentators interpreted the move as a complete removal of the military from the scheme.
However, Olawande dismissed that interpretation, stressing that while administrative control would shift to a civilian leadership structure, the military would continue to play its existing role in providing security for corps members across the country.
The reforms will not take effect immediately. Because many of the proposed changes require amendments to the legal framework governing the scheme, the Federal Executive Council has directed the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Youth Development to begin the process of amending the NYSC Act to provide the reforms with the necessary legal backing.
