By Leonard Okachie
Brig.-Gen. Yusha’u Ahmed, the Director-General National Youth Services Corps (NYSC), has urged corps members to remain disciplined, hardworking and abide by the rules and regulations in their camp.
He gave the advice at the swearing-in ceremony of the orientation course for the 2023 Batch ‘C’ Stream II corps members deployed to Abia at Umunna, Bende Local Government Area.
Ahmed advised the corps members to respect the culture, norms and values of their host communities and impact on them positively.
The director-general who said he was in Abia to see how the corps members were doing in the camp, expressed satisfaction with their activities.
“I’m sure that you will find Abia a very pleasant state to stay as I have seen you in high morale and I’m happy things are going on well,” he said.
Responding to journalists about the new minimum wage for corps members, the NYSC boss expressed optimism that they would not be left behind once the Federal Government announces that for workers.
“So we are praying that very soon something will be done for them,” he said.
In a remark, Gov. Alex Otti, represented by Mr Nwaobilor Ananaba, the state Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, commended the NYSC boss for finding time to visit corps members in the state.
He expressed gratitude to the past and present managements of the NYSC for keeping faith and sustaining the vision of the scheme’s founding fathers.
“We will continue to partner with your Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme to speed up our youth empowerment programmes of the State Government,” he said.
Earlier, the NYSC Abia Coordinator, Mrs Ufuoma Dick-Iruenabere, disclosed that 1,698 corps members, comprising 891 males and 807 females, were registered to begin their service year in the state.
She, however, decried the increasing rate of demands for relocation to other states by corps members deployed to Abia.
Dick-Iruenabere, who appealed to the governor for a good welfare package, said that the ugly trend might not be unconnected with the “welfare package unavailable to corps members in the state”.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Chief Judge of Abia, Justice Lilian Abai, represented by Justice Benson Anya, administered the oath of allegiance on the corps members.(NAN)
