NYSC at 50: Official Speaks On Achievements in Education, Health, Others

As the Corp members serving in Kaduna state join the leadership and staff of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) across the country on “Unity Walk” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the scheme, the coordinator of the Scheme in the state, Mr Hassan Mahmud Taura, said the scheme has done credibly well in the area of education, health, and other national engagements.

The Coordinator, who spoke to newsmen on the sideline of the unity walk which covered a few kilometres from the NYSC Secretariat at Ungwan Rimi through Fulani road, Kaduna Polytechnic and terminated at Independence Way, Kaduna added that except for the issue of security in recent times, the scheme would have offered more developmental programmes to its credit.

Established in 1973 following a decree by the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, the NYSC was promulgated to roll out programmes that would boost national unity, integration and cohesion which it has been doing over the years by way of mobilising and deploying young Nigerian graduates to other states rather than their state of origin and possibly where they schooled.

According to the Coordinator, “the scheme has made a great impact in the country in the areas of education, health, agriculture, infrastructure and other national assignments including elections and national population census.”

Related: NYSC at 50: DG lauds contributions of scheme on Nigeria unity, elections
To him, the top challenge the scheme face is “the issue of security. A lot of NYSC programmes are either jettisoned or tampered with because of the security risks involved.

“However, our security operatives nationwide are on top of the situation and I hope in a few years to come, we would have improved on the security thereby allowing the scheme to operate as it used to be,” he prayed.

Hassan was optimistic that “in the next 50 years, we expect the scheme to have become greater than this because when it started, I remember it was just about five federal government institutions that we’re producing graduates.

“But today, we have about 300 corps-producing institutions including private and public ones producing about 300,000 human resources for the country every year.

“So, NYSC can only get better if it gets supports it deserves from individuals, corporate organisation and government at all levels,” he added.

Meanwhile, pregnant women, lactating mothers and others who have health issues were exempted from the exercise.