Given the security issues in the country, the Director of Mobilisation of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Mr Anthony Ani, on Tuesday, assured parents whose children have been deployed to various parts of the country for the compulsory service scheme that they will take security of their children very serious. This is given the health risk of Ebola and Boko Haram in the country that may make some corps member want to redeploy to another state. According to him, he stated thus:
I assure all parents and prospective youth corps members that the NYSC has taken adequate measures to ensure that these camps are well protected and their lives are also protected.
There are four states where we don’t have orientation going on; these are Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe, because of the security challenges that we are having in those parts of the nation”, he said on Sunrise Daily.
He, noted that the corps members who have been deployed to those areas are going to have their orientation at a later date outside those areas. “This is to ensure that we are in tune with what is happening,” he said, adding that security has been provided by all security agencies for all other camps across the country.
He added that those deployed to the security challenged areas would have their camps outside the states where they do not have security challenges. The camps will be in Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue and Niger States.
For those deployed to Borno, they will be having their orientation in Keffi (Nasarawa). For those deployed to Gombe, they will be in Niger, while for those who have been deployed to Adamawa, they are to have their orientation at Benue and those deployed to Yobe will be in Plateau.
These special orientation will run from November 26 to December 15,” he said.
Mr Ani further noted that corps members posted to those states have the choice to seek redeployment after the orientation to other locations in the country, although he maintained that “there is no cause for alarm” and that “the NYSC is very alert to it’s responsibility”.
He also said that the “NYSC will be teaching the corps members Martial Arts and have invited security experts to speak to them on security tips around all the camps”, adding that “as part of our training, by the time the corps members finish their service, instead of roaming about the streets looking for paid jobs, we will now make them entrepreneurs; so we have introduced a skill acquisition programme”.
He said every corps member is asked to choose a skill and during the orientation is exposed to this skill and the training continues after the orientation. This is in a bid to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and self reliant in the life of the corps members
