Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, the Director-General ( D-G) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), on Thursday said that he was commited to his core mandate of protecting lives of corps members during their service year.
Ibrahim said this during an unscheduled visit to the 2019 Batch ‘B’ (Stream II) corps members at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Ikare-Akoko in Ondo State.
The D-G said that he was not always at peace whenever he had to explain to parents why a corps member lost his or her life.
“I am talking to you not only as the director-general of this laudable scheme but as a father who knows and understands very well the psychological trauma parents go through when they lose a child that they had invested a lot of resources on.
“Please, I am begging you to desist from making frivolous and unauthorised journeys. When the unexpected happens, I am always very sad to console and explain to parents that we had lost their son or daughter,” he said.
Ibrahim said that any corps member found to have embarked on an unapproved journey would face the full wrath of the law in line with the Act establishing the scheme.
The director-general also cautioned corps members not to ridicule the good name of the NYSC by misinforming the world through unguarded use of the social media.
“The unity of this country lies in your hands and you can only support the Federal Government by agreeing to give your very best through meaningful service to your fatherland outside your comfort zone.
“If not for this progressive scheme, some of you, for instance, who undertook all their educational pursuits in Ibadan, would have wanted to work in Ibadan and still wanted to marry in Ibadan.
“But for the pragmatic approach of NYSC, you would have remained a local champion.
“All the state coordinators have been empowered to enforce the right way of dressing by investing in large banners to showcase the appropriate and correct ways of wearing NYSC uniforms,” he said.
He said that he would not be tired of encouraging corps members to key-in into the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme, as there lies their economic and financial emancipation.
“Your academic qualifications are, no doubt intimidating and outstanding, but I want to encourage you to embrace both in-camp and post-camp training on SAED to make yourselves budding entrepreneurs and captains of industries.
“NYSC has entered into partnership the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BoI), Bank of Agriculture (BoA) and some other commercial banks.
“These institutions will assist corps members with take-off grants and loans with a single digit interest rate to stabilise you during and after the service year,” he said.
The 18th director-general of the scheme also advised the corps members, especially the females, to respect their dignity and be wary of people of shady characters as ‘not all that glitters is gold’.
The D-G in company with the State Coordinator, Mrs. Grace Akpabio, inspected the various ongoing developmental projects on the camp. (NAN)
