‘Posting corps members to Boko Haram-ravaged states is optional’

DIRECTOR-General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Brigadier-General Johnson Olawunmi, has stated that posting corps members to perform their national service in the states ravaged by Boko Haram in North- Eastern Nigeria is optional.

Brigadier-General Olawunmi made the clarification while answering questions from journalists at the weekend after closing the one week preparatory course for NYSC state coordinators at the NASME Barrack, Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

The NYSC boss who assured those that voluntarily choose to do their national service in the zone of adequate security and welfare, further said no corp member has been killed in the area since he assumed duty as director general.

He charged the course participants to make use of the knowledge gained during the training in order to justify the resources invested in the programme and directed the course coordinators to get all the lectures delivered in soft and hard copies to serve for reference purpose.

I enjoined you and all other participants to look beyond the training experience here in Makurdi and apply wisdom to handle real life situations in the field. Thus, do not isolate yourselves any time the opportunity presents itself for you to lead somewhere. Consult widely and open your doors to tap from the vast knowledge and experience of others,” Olawunmi advised.

In her closing remarks, the Acting Director of CDS/Director of Studies, NYSC Preparatory Course for States Coordinators (1, 2015), Mrs. V.B. Okakwu, intimated that 33 officers from different NYSC formations across the country, including Abuja participated in the 2015 course.

Mrs. Okakwu, who lauded the sound character, dedication and commitment exhibited by participants and facilitators to enhance success of the course, disclosed that the trainees were taken through 21 lectures and presentations at plenary on various topics by resource persons from within and outside the NYSC.

Earlier in her address, the Director of Human Resource Department, NYSC, Mrs. R.K. Kwaki, said the training was deliberately structured to take participants through the rudiments of the cardinal programmes of the NYSC scheme and expose the trainees to the constraints many state coordinators face in the field.