National Youth Service Corps Restates Commitment To Nigeria’s Unity

The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Shu’aibu Ibrahim has renewed the Scheme’s commitment to Nigeria’s unity and integration as well as self-improvement through a well-designed Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme (SAED).

The NYSC DG revealed this in a special interview and live programme on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa service titled “Ra’ayi Riga”.

The DG while acknowledging that security challenges are not peculiar to the NYSC, called on all stakeholders to sustain effective synergy with Government, and support security agencies in ensuring that all citizens, especially Corps Members are protected, and allowed to deploy their potentials in extending the frontiers of development in all the nooks and crannies of this country.

Speaking on the continued relevance of the scheme as a catalyst for national integration and sustainable development in the national economy, Brigadier General Ibrahim emphasised that the NYSC remains a lasting legacy and an institutional framework that promotes national unity and peaceful coexistence.

He refuted the claim of kidnapping and killing of Corps Members, as the basis for the renewed debate on the scrapping of the Scheme, clarifying that apart from the unfortunate incidence of the 2011 electoral violence, no such record exists in NYSC.

He said the NYSC Scheme is more relevant now in addressing the contemporary challenges of national unity in Nigeria, than ever before.

He explained that since the creation of NYSC 48 years ago, Corps Members have been discharging selfless services all over the federation.

He added that they are in schools teaching in the rural areas, they work in hospitals, especially in the rural areas where they treat indigent people and give free drugs and eye-glasses to patients and a host of other interventions in the national economy.

The Director-General while responding to the need for the provisions of post-service employment and sustainable self-reliance packages said the SAED Programme of the Scheme is doing well in empowering Corps Members with the requisite skills, while financial institutions such as Bank of Industry, Central Bank of Nigeria extend credit facilities to them.

He explained that most of these empowered Corps Members do not only own flourishing businesses, but are employing other Nigerians, thus accelerating rapid economic growth.

Brigadier General Ibrahim, however, revealed that the Scheme is approaching the Federal Government on the need for NYSC Trust Fund where resources will be dedicated to improving relevant facilities in the camps and NYSC formations, while also providing grants to Corps Members that will enable them start up their businesses under the SAED programme.