Sunday Aroni, the Lagos State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), on Monday urged the participants in the one year mandatory national service not to travel outside the state without official permission.
Aroni, who spoke at the end of orientation programme for the 2019 Batch ‘B’, Stream 2 Corps members at the temporary NYSC camp in Agege, Lagos, maintained that several participants had in the past been involved in motor accidents, some of which claimed lives, during unauthorised journeys.
He warned that any corps member who caught travelling outside the state without official permission by him, through the necessary channels, would be punished, describing illegal travels as serious offence.
He, however, commended the 2,108 NYSC members who took part in the orientation for being courageous, vibrant and dedicated throughout the period of their training in the camp, stressing that their humility, discipline and patriotism contributed to the successes of the orientation.
Aroni also maintained that while at their places of primary assignment, the NYSC members should be good ambassadors of the scheme and obey the rules and regulations of the service as erring members would be disciplined.
He stressed: “I would like to assure you that the scheme and the nation is proud of you as it has entrusted you with grooming the young ones and embarking on setting up of small and medium scale enterprises on completion of the national service so that you will be leaders that shall directly impact society in diverse ways.
“We continually look forward to your creativity, innovation and positive thinking to help overcome some, if not all the challenges of our dear nation. It is our hope that you will continue to shine and lead by example as you impact the knowledge you have gained upon others within your communities.”
Aroni commended Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the support, encouragement and invaluable assistance to the scheme for the success of its programmes, especially for the land donated for the permanent orientation camp at Agbowa, in Ikorodu area of the state.
He urged the state government to put machinery in motion for the commencement of the construction work on the camp to give the state the type of camp it deserved.
He also commended the government and the NYSC board for their commitment to the welfare of the corps members deployed to the state.
Governor Sanwo-Olu in his speech enjoned the corps members to continue to be innovative and evolve ideas that would solve the problems of communities where they were posted to.
The governor also urged them to avoid and preach against hate speeches and other divisive tendencies capable of provoking unrest and threaten the unity and peace of the nation.
Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by Dr. Yusuf Jimoh, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Relations, urged the corps members to strive for excellence and continue to learn, develop and consolidate on the various skills they had been exposed to in the past weeks during their orientation training.
A special feature of the event was the presentation of special awards to two former corps members who preformed creditably in their places of primary assignments.
The awardees are Dr. Saudat Ayomide Aminu, a medial graduate from the University of Ibadan and Mr. Babatunde Moses, who passed out from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife.
