National Service is meant to offer all university graduates whose education was to some extent subsidized by the taxpayers of Ghana the opportunity to repay their debt to the society. Honestly, i believe a year of service to the nation is a small price to pay for tertiary education. Don't get me wrong, it's not like you get to attend Uni for free, more like you pay a lot less than the actual cost. Lots of people would not be able to access higher level education if it wasn't for these subsidies. Compared to other countries i believe Ghanaians pay very little for a degree.

So why are Ghanaians so ungrateful? After all that the society has done to ensure we get a good chance at life most people refuse to enroll for the program.
Allow me to properly define my terms: National Service is when the secretariat posts graduates to various institutions, where their knowledge and skills are needed. Most of these institutions are in the public sector, ministries, schools, district assemblies and places like that where there is a shortage of human resource. These institutions are nonetheless essential for the development of the society.

The norm these days is for graduates to seek more lucrative jobs in the private sector to undertake their service. The problem with that situation is this:
First of all i fail to see how working in a private bank or your father's company could repay the debt you owe the society. It is more for individual benefit than societal, which isn't what the program is about from the beginning.
Second of all, the status quo has enabled these private businesses to reiterate what matters most to them i.e. cutting costs and increasing profits. Too many national service personnel complain about how certain banks and businesses take in lots of people for service and after their service period, lays a greater number of them off.
You can't really blame the banks. Truth is, service personnel are cheap labour and for the most part are no less efficient than permanent staff, and there's a fresh batch of them every single year. You can trust the capitalists to take full advantage of this opportunity to cut costs on hiring more expensive permanent staff.

Maybe it's not even ingratitude, maybe the system's messed up and needs to be better organised, take my situation for example:
I am an Accra boy to the marrow..no doubt! So i believe one can feel my pain when the postings come out and i am sent to a little place in my home region i.e. north called Gushiegu.
For the record, i wasn't exactly surprised with that posting since i chose to be in that region when i registered, so why am i not exactly excited at this outcome?
This is me: i always wanted to get into some work for charity, volunteer to help people in need and things like that. Unfortunately i couldn't find any opportunity to pursue that goal. And it is a goal because it has some innate value to me.
So i figured service will enable me to offer a hand to people in need and where better than the north. For one, that's where i trace my lineage and it's one of the most deprived regions in the country.

So now we know why i chose the North and at the time i couldn't think of any where better.
Four to five months later i get what i wanted and for some reason my situation has changed.
Here's the deal, i am going to teach up there. Service lasts a year, what do i do after that since i am not cut out for teaching anyways?. I am gonna come back to Accra and job hunt, competing with next year's grads. On the other hand, my friends who already got jobs in Accra and worked hard are gainfully employed and lets face it that's the bottom line. I have to start from scratch!
The amenities there aren't the best and the worst thing that could happen, unconfirmed reports have it that there are GSM 'hotspots', outside of which you cannot make or receive calls on your mobile phone.... say it ain't so, but it is! I am not bothered by that anyways. Under normal circumstances no one should be either. If you are going to serve the people the last thing on your mind should be your urban comforts right?...right!

Regardless of that suddenly the choice i made months ago has lost it's appeal. As if considerations for my future wasn't enough, my northern brothers have decided that by all means they have to engage in a violent conflict the very same year i am supposed to go there!...c'mon people can't we just get along? We, the peace loving northerners are tired of defending our more violent brothers year after year...what? for how long?

Now i have to look forward to more bureaucratic torture at the hands of the National Service Secretariat as i apply for an assault rifle..preferably an M6 with enough ammo and Kevlar vests to be added to my tool kit..There's no way am going up there without these items..period!
So my decision will be influenced by my personal ambitions and possibly the value i place on my life........above all that i have to consider my debt to the society?