By ZAKAA LAZARUS
Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has praised successive batches of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members for sustaining the core values of the Scheme.
He made the commendation when the NYSC Director General (DG), Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, visited him at this residence in Abuja.
Gowon, whose administration established the Scheme in 1973, said the Corps members’ contributions to urban and rural development, the education and health sectors as well as elections and other national programmes were worthy of commendation.
The elder statesman expressed delight at the successes recorded by the NYSC over the past decades, and went on to commend the managers of the Scheme for sustaining the vision of its founding fathers.
“Let me commend all the staff of the Scheme from inception to date. I say well done and thank you for ensuring that it records success,” he said.
He said the idea of establishing the NYSC stemmed from the collective quest of various sections of Nigeria, who saw the need to use the country’s human resources to solve its problems after its civil war.
While noting that the deployment policy of the Scheme had resulted in inter-ethnic marriages among many other benefits, Gowon stressed the need to make it more relevant in the face of current realities.
He advocated greater stakeholders’ support for the Scheme, saying this would help, amongst other things, to promote entrepreneurial and self-employment success for Corps Members, which was one of the objectives stated in the NYSC Act.
Earlier in his remarks, Nafiu expressed gratitude to the former Head of State for being unrelenting in providing guidance for the Scheme.
He assured that the entire staff of NYSC remained committed to sustaining its successes and breaking new grounds of achievements in its post-golden jubilee era.
