The benefits of participating in the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, four cardinal programmes are unquantifiable, the Ondo State coordinator of the scheme, Mrs. Victoria Nnenna Ani, has declared.
Ani made the declaration while speaking at the closing ceremony of the orientation course for the 2021 Batch ‘B’ (Stream 1) corps members deployed to Ondo State.
She said that members of the service corps should acclimatize to their new environment and identify with the problems and aspirations of their host communities.
“One of the benefits of the service year is the unquantifiable real and deep knowledge that a corps member can gain from the community in which he or she resides. In this way, the spirit of intolerance, ethnic prejudice and fear that pervades every aspect of our national life will be overcome,” she said.
The NYSC boss enjoined the corps members to accept their postings without reservation, resentment or bad feelings as the national service was beyond personal or parochial consideration.
“I charge you to be very resourceful, purposeful, dedicated and patriotic. Let selfless service be your watchword throughout the service year and beyond. I enjoin you not to regard the one year national service as a period to gallivant and engage in unguarded revelry but consider it as a period that you can make your own meaningful contributions towards building a better society.
“No matter how remote your places of primary assignment may be, remember that some other corps members have served there before and some are currently on ground contributing their own quota to the development of the community. I urge you to embark on individual Community Development Projects thereby leaving your places of primary assignment better than you met them.
“Let me inform you that there is always attractive package for any corps members who distinguishes him or herself during the service year by the nature of community development projects he or she embarks upon. It is therefore not out of place if you make up your mind today to be one of the beneficiaries of this special package,” Ani said.
The state coordinator told the corps members that the energy sapping physical activities and series of induction lectures were aimed at making them better citizens which invariably must have greatly impacted their collective efforts and the joy of having gone through a challenging but highly rewarding orientation exercise.
On the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development, SAED, programme, Ani admonished the corps members to seize the opportunity to get themselves ready for post service challenges and embrace the post-camp training at their respective places of primary assignment.
The NYSC boss said that the scheme would continue to live up to her responsibility, especially on security and welfare of corps members as safety of members of the service corps remained paramount to the management.
“It is expected that all these efforts should naturally be reciprocated through hard work and dedication to duty and I am using this opportunity to appeal to corps employers to treat the corps members like their biological children,” she said.
She tasked the corps members to take their personal security seriously and appeal to them to be security conscious and study their environment scientifically.
She said they should seek more knowledge to know every minutest details of their surroundings.
Ani reminded the corps members that “COVID -19 is real”, and encouraged them to protect themselves by observing all the protocols associated with the spread of the novel virus, and educate people in their host communities about the dangers of not observing all the protocols.
Two camp officials, Messrs Omotade Olaoluwa and Phillips Olusola, were given letters of commendation for their resilience under the NYSC and Collaborating Agencies category respectively while the Corps Camp Director, Eghele Abdulmalik was equally honoured with commendation letter for his dedication and resilience.
