The Director-General, National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Shuaibu, has said that prospective corps members will not be mobilised anytime soon.
This is because the country is still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Shuaibu, the management of the service Corps will only organise fresh orientation programme when it receives the go ahead from relevant authorities that the coast is clear.
The NYSC DG, who stated this in an interview with the Economic Confidential, said the Batch A, Stream 1 corps members who were already in camp, but had to be hurriedly dismissed due to the outbreak of the virus in the country, will be recalled back to their various orientation camps to complete their training when the pandemic is over.
“We don’t know when we are going to start mobilising our corps members. You know our training is also structured like that of the military and paramilitary. You can see that the Nigerian Navy recently suspended its training for its freshly recruited cadets.
“So, the moment the coast is clear, we are going to key into the way others will conduct their exercise, so that our corps members can be called back soonest,” he said.
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He however, expressed delight with the success story of the Scheme’s Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme and the plan to generate revenue from the creative ingenuity and productivity of corps members.
He said the SAED programme has recorded tremendous successes, “which can even be seen from the activities of our corps members in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Our corps members, nationwide, produced face masks, sanitisers, disinfectant tools, and automatic sanitising machines. They are also involved in the sensitisation and distribution of palliatives of some of these items to communities.”
He disclosed that the NYSC was looking into ways to generate money rather than depending on the government for everything.
“We now have NYSC bread and Table Water Company in Kubwa. We want to see how we can replicate same in the States. So that during orientation exercises we can get these items from our production plants, and feed our corps members in camps.
“Some of our Corps members are into fish and snail farming in NYSC farms. We want to embark in commercial farming of rice. We want to key into the Federal Government’s policy on local content on agric business. This is because we don’t want to be a burden on government,” Brig. Gen. Shuaibu stated.
