Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig. Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, has appealed to state governors to address operational challenges facing the scheme.
“Despite the accomplishments, the scheme is faced with operational challenges occasioned by dilapidated orientation camp facilities, inadequate office accommodation for state secretariats and non-fulfillment of statutory responsibilities by some stakeholders, among others,” he said.
Ibrahim made the disclosure at the 2021 NYSC Annual Management Conference in Abuja yesterday.
He used the “opportunity to thank state and local governments for their support over the years” and appealed “for continued intervention to address the aforementioned problems where they exist.”
He called for the establishment of a NYSC fund. He said the fund would provide operational infrastructure and make the NYSC skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development programme impactful.
He said the ripple effect would make benefiting corps members provide direct jobs or vocational training for thousands of youths in host communities thereby reducing unemployment, restiveness and criminal tendencies.
According to him, it is a known fact that NYSC has remained a national asset, which plays a vital role in the promotion of peaceful co-existence among people of diverse socio-cultural backgrounds through the deployment of corps members to locations away from their states of origin and geo-political zones.
He added: “We not only create conditions for them to work together but also take deliberate steps to fully integrate them into their host communities.
“The contributions of the scheme to all spheres of national development including education, health, infrastructural development, sports, free movement of labour, provision of free legal aid services, conduct of elections and job creation, among others, have also attracted widespread applause both nationally and internationally.”
