May 05, (THEWILL) – The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Yu’shua Ahmed Dogara, has given the assurance that there are plans to improve on the gains and achievements of the scheme, especially as it is making arrangements to mark its 50th anniversary.
Yu’shua gave the assurance while fielding questions from journalists at the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) orientation camp, Old Macgregor College, Afikpo, Ebonyi State, during a one-day working visit.
He also said the scheme would be stronger when the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) Trust Fund is assented to.
He further called on corps members to abide by the rules and regulations guiding the scheme, even as he warned against indecent dressing.
“I will urge you just the way you have started to relate peaceful, behave well and I do not want anybody to be found wanting. I expect each and every one of you as you come to end the camp successfully. All the rules and regulations that are seplt out, you have to abide by them.
“When I was coming in, I saw a poster of corp members dressing code. I expect every corp member to dress according to the dressing code. If you check that poster, you will know how you are expected to dress, even through out your service year.
“It has been observed and I have received servaral calls on how corp members dressed . It is only in NYSC that corp members dressed any how and that must stop. I have consulted the state commissioner of police, the SSS, the civil defense and all is to improve on the inter agency collaboration.
“Regarding this dress code, I have already discussed with all state commissioners and I have directed all state coordinators to liase with all the state police commissioners in their states that any corps member found dressing anyhow should be arrested.
“Anything you do here, you are being regulated. So, the essence of this is to prepare you as leaders. Though, you are already leaders on your own. You have gone through various rigours of life. The next thing is to prepare you as leaders.
“What we are doing now is a deliberate attempt to give you the nitty-gritty of what is required for you to be a good leader.
“We expect that we continue to improve on what we have been doing and move ahead to mentoring these young Nigerians , and giving our best to the community where they are serving”, he said.
He said, however, the argument to scrap the scheme was unpopular and stated that those thinking about such are thinking about disaster for the country.
“I have not heard the argument much but even those who have it, I will tell them to have a rethink. The moment you start thinking of that you are looking for disasters in the country.
“The moment you think of scraping NYSC, a lot of things will crumble. You know the contribution of these young men and women are doing in terms of education, health sector, Agric and other sectors.
“The best thing to be done to make the scheme stronger is by assenting to the bill of the National Youth Service Trust Fund. That is the way forward”, Yu’shua said.
While speaking, the State Coordinator, Mrs Bamai Mercy noted that a total of 1,029 corps members made of 532 males and 497 females, were inducted into the camp and have since coordinated themselves to adapt to the regimented nature of the camp.
She commended him for making out time off his busy schedule to visit the camp while soliciting for improved infrastructure as well as called for the establishment of the State NYSC governing board and a functional local government committee.
“Most of the available vehicles are obsolete, we are spending a lot on repair, the issue of electricity in the orientation camp is another challenge, there is no electricity supply to the camp, a lot of funds go into the purchase of diesel and petrol to run all the power generating set in the camp”, she added.
Sunday Ogbu is a professional journalist with eight - twelve years experience that had worked with various print and online media. Sunday specializes in news reporting with the aim of educating his readers on current social, political and economic occurences within his area of coverage. Sunday is a strong force to work with in the media industry and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. Sunday is inspired daily by his wife and their four children. In his free time, Sunday likes sight-seeing, reading and discussing issues of societal interest.
