My first allawee alert came in and I remember staring at the amount for a full minute, doing mental maths I already knew would not add up. Rent for my self contain near the secretariat alone was more than half of it. What remained had to somehow cover transport to my PPA every day, feeding, data to stay in touch with my family, and the small emergencies that always find a way to appear during service year. By the third week of every month, I was borrowing from other corpers who were just as stretched as I was.

Welfare is the part of NYSC that quietly determines whether service year feels like meaningful national duty or like a slow financial struggle dressed up in white and khaki. A corper cannot serve a country well while genuinely worried about affording their next meal, yet this is the reality for a huge number of young graduates every single year.

My proposal starts with a cost of living adjustment. Allawee should not be a single flat figure applied nationally, when the cost of renting a room in Lagos is nothing like the cost in a small town in Kebbi. A tiered system, calculated using each state's actual cost of living index, would immediately make the allowance fairer and more realistic.

Second, welfare should include guaranteed access to health insurance that actually works, not just a card that exists on paper. Too many corpers avoid seeking medical care during service year because the promised NYSC health coverage is either unavailable at the nearest facility or requires paperwork that takes longer than most illnesses last.

Third, PPAs that can afford to should be required to contribute a supplementary stipend, especially organisations with clear commercial revenue. A corper generating real value for a company should not be entirely dependent on a government allowance that has not increased at the same pace as inflation.

I eventually adjusted, took on small freelance writing jobs on the side to survive, and finished my service year without major incident. But adjusting should not be the expectation placed on every corper. A scheme that asks young Nigerians to leave their homes and serve their country for a year owes them, at the very least, an allowance that can cover the basic cost of living during that service. Welfare is not a luxury add on to NYSC. It is the foundation everything else in the scheme is supposed to stand on.