The National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, has rejected the move to scrap the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and called on the House of Representatives to focus more on strategies that would strengthen the legislative framework of the NYSC and to put in place a better incentives for young Nigerians to maintain the tradition of exploring the numerous opportunities in the diversity of Nigerian culture.
This was made known by the Vice President, Nigeria Youth Council of Nigeria, Amb Akoshile Mukhtar, during a press conference held in Abuja to address issue of scrapping the age-long NYSC scheme, adding that Nigeria is at a critical point in her history and what is most required at this moment is careful introspection and continuous engagement among the various component units and stakeholders.
He said, “We were shocked that the hallowed floor of the Federal House of Representatives of Nigeria would be weaponized to further a parochial and divisionist agenda couched in the move to scrap the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) citing security challenges as the reason.
“The call to scrap the NYSC scheme which serves as a transition year for many Nigerian youth, with the N33,000 allowance serving as a key financial stabilizer for many of these poor Nigerians, is a negative message to them that government doesn’t care about them.
“We are well aware that this move has been covertly sponsored by agents of destabilization, who have misguided the respected House of Representatives, which has in time past and on several occasions taken the side of the Nigerian masses even at huge political cost.
“We do not deny the fact that there are security challenges in Nigeria , but we would have expected the House to be more engaged in finding solutions to support our troops on the frontlines and boost their morale, rather than using the legislative privilege to declare victory for enemies of Nigeria by calling for scrapping of a national scheme like NYSC.
“As representatives of the youth we are bold to say that the NYSC has done far much more good than harm to national development and sustaining the scheme should be the priority of lawmakers rather than calling for it to be scrapped. Governance is a service to the citizenry and the only presence of government known to many Nigerians in the remote areas of Nigeria is the youth Corp member s posted there as community school teacher or healthcare professional.
“Finally, the NYCN Passes a vote of Credence in the continuous existence of the NYSC, its Management and urge that all stakeholders should support in ensuring that his vision for a crop of independent youth is realized.”
Source: Vanguard