By: Hajara Umar Nataala
The President of the National Inter-Faith and Religious Organisation for Peace, Bishop Sunday Garuba, has applauded the National Assembly for considering the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Trust Fund Bill, stating that it would provide a permanent solution to the unemployment crisis in the country.
In a special message on the group’s reflections for 2021, the cleric said Nigerians have every reason to be thankful to God despite all the challenges facing them.
He explained that, the country is still recording success in various sectors and only deep retrospection would reveal all that we have gained as a nation.
He also prayed for the Nigerian leaders particularly, those behind the bill, describing them as God-sent ready to do God’s work.
He stated:
“The bill is to provide a sustainable source of funds for the NYSC; skills acquisition training program, help provide start-up capital for corps members, help train and retrain the personnels of the NYSC, develop the camps, and help improve NYSC formations and provide facilities therein.”
The cleric noted that the NYSC Trust Fund when passed into law will also “improve the general welfare of corps members and personnel of the scheme and enhance their preparedness to effectively discharge their statutory duties of promoting national unity, integration, self-reliance and accelerated development of the national economy.”
Garuba said he has perused the bill and found out that the proposed law will, therefore, provide a legal framework for management and control of the special intervention fund established under Section 3 of the Act.
He added that the bill partly read, “The Trust Fund established under Section 3 of this Act covers all corps members, personnel of the NYSC, orientation camps, formations, facilities and for the overall improvement and efficiency in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities.”
Bishop Garuba also commended the NYSC DG, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, for rejuvenating the Skills Acquisition & Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme to empower hundreds of thousands of young Nigerians for self-reliance.
He noted that with the NYSC’s SAED initiative, many young Nigerians have embraced entrepreneurship and are now full-scale business owners and employers.
The Bishop also acknowledged the efforts of the NYSC DG in flushing out fake graduates from participating in the scheme, improvement in the revenue generation and infrastructural face-lift.
He stated that the DG’s exceptional leadership came to the fore during the peak of the coronavirus where corp members rendered medical services.
According to him, the enrollment of corp members into the National Health Insurance Scheme, infrastructural development and movie production are all the brainchildren that Shuaib Ibrahim led the management of, which is a huge development and welcome to all.
He, however, said that the passage of the Bill will further equip the NYSC to better service the country.
Source: The Guardian