Whenever I meet Gowon I thank him for initiating the NYSC – Buhari

“Whenever I meet General Gowon up till today, I thank him for initiating the NYSC. It is a nationalist and patriotic thinking that led to the development of the scheme,” President Muhammadu Buhari has said

Buhari said this on Thursday when some members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, met him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on a ‘thank-you’ mission over their new allowances.

This came as the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has passed a vote of confidence on the leadership on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) just as it called on  government to strengthen the training programmes in camps to ensure that the youth who pass through the scheme come out capable of contributing to national growth

The four members representing others countrywide came to convey their “deepest gratitude” to the president over the recent increase in their monthly allowances from N19,800 to N33,000.

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The NYSC members were led to the State House by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare and the Director General of the scheme, Brigadier General Ibrahim Shehu.

Speaking at the event, President Buhari described the NYSC scheme as a ”laudable one that needs to be sustained as it affords the opportunity for Nigerian youths to understand the country better”.

He said: “People come from far and wide; some from Victoria Island in Lagos have not even been to Ikeja.

”They now find themselves in Daura and other parts of the country. Whenever I go to my town, I get in touch with members; some of them from Lagos, some from Port Harcourt.”

President Buhari, who praised General Yakubu Gowon for the initiative, said: “Whenever I meet General Gowon up till today, I thank him for initiating the NYSC.

”It is a nationalist and patriotic thinking that led to the development of the scheme.”

Earlier, the NYSC members had showered praises on the president, saying ”the implementation in January, when we least expected it brought tears of joy to us as we had doubts of the promises earlier made.

“You have demonstrated that you are a loving and caring father committed to the welfare of his children.”

They also reiterated their commitment to do their best during their period in the scheme.

“The increase is a wake-up call to us to show more commitment to the affairs of our fatherland.

”We are great stakeholders in our collective determination of building a prosperous and united Nigeria, the future belongs to us,” they said.

Also the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has passed a vote of confidence on the leadership on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) just as it called on  government to strengthen the training programmes in camps and to ensure that the youth who pass through the scheme come out capable of contributing to national growth.

The NYCN in a statement signed by the Vice President, Comrade Akoshile Mukhtar, on Thursday said that the leadership of the NYSC has done very well, with a lot of programs and entrepreneurship innovations, which have manifested in the recent increase of monthly allowance to Corp members in line with the new minimum wage.

It further decried attempt to discredit the good works of the NYSC leadership by some organization, who recently demanded that the NYSC should allow female Corp members to wear skirts.

The NYCN educating the protesters said that the ‘rigours of the service scheme would not practically allow the participants to dress in skirts, and that the said uniform is not a daily wear.’

The youth group urged the protesters to desist from the ‘unpatriotic course and quit their strategy of politicizing sensitive national issues that are purely administrative.’

Read full statement below

The leadership of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), the premier youth welfare and capacity development advocacy organization in Nigeria, hereby wishes to put on record its stamp of approval on the leadership of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Our independent observations have revealed that the leadership has done very well, with a lot of programs and Entrepreneurship innovations, which have been manifested in the recent approval secured for the increase of monthly allowance to Corp members in line with the new minimum wage.

The NYCN have also noted with grave concern, the attempts to pour scorn on the values of national unity that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme represents, all in an attempt to discredit the good works of the leadership of the scheme. One such attempt was that by an organization, unknown within the youth circles, that was sponsored to carry out protests against the NYSC’s for preventing female Corp members from wearing skirts.

It is a rather worrying travesty that in the name of trying to demand for dignity of women to be respected, using images of women who have made the choice to serve their country as examples of the alleged wrongs in the scheme. We are not unaware of those responsible for this act and we urge them to desist from their unpatriotic course and quit their strategy of politicizing sensitive national issues that are purely administrative.

The so called protesters need not be reminded that the rigours of the service scheme would not practically allow the participants to dress in skirts, and they also need not be reminded that the said uniform is not a daily wear. These faceless characters also need not be reminded that the scheme has been ongoing for close to 50years and working seamlessly with continuous improvements and countless testimonies of young Nigerians who have passed through the system and have settled in other parts of Nigeria they would ordinarily not have visited.

The NYCN is also aware of the other ploys by this group to destabilize the NYSC to further their selfish agenda and herby wish to assure them that we shall meet them in the trenches with facts on the efforts of government to uplift the standard of youth in Nigeria. The NYCN hereby also warns such characters should desist from their unpatriotic course, as we will not allow an institution such as the NYSC to be used as a political tool.

We applaud the federal government on speedy implementation of the new salary structure for the Corp members which serves as Monthly allowance for the young Leaders of our country.   We further urge  government to strengthen the training programmes in camps and to ensure that the youth who pass through the scheme come out capable of contributing to national growth.

Finally, the National Youth Council of Nigeria passes a vote  confidence on the  DG NYSC and urge the DG to carry on with his good works and pay no heed to detractors who would want to keep him from doing his work in the ultimate interest of the nation.