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Corps members posted to Ondo State to have been charged to use their service year to help effect major changes in the country.
The coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the state, Mrs Grace Akpabio, challenged the corp members on Friday during the flag off of lecture series for the 2019 Batch ‘B’ (Stream 1) orientation programme currently going on at the Permanent Orientation Camp, Ikare-Akoko.
She said the corps members can change the negative narrative about Nigeria by serving diligently and patriotically.
According to her, the country needs the genuine services of corps members to engender the desired change the country desperately needs.
Her words: “As a responsible national and laudable Scheme, the NYSC has since inception 46 years ago engage in training the graduate youths to be exceptional leaders and role models in the society.
“Your mobilisation and subsequent deployment for the mandatory one year service should not be seen as a national cake but rather a sacrifice to make the country a better place for this generation and generations yet unborn”.
The Coordinator stated that the principal purpose of the scheme is “to inculcate in the Nigerian youth, the spirit of selfless service to the nation and to emphasise the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians irrespective of cultural, social background and to promote national unity and development”
According to her, the programme was established as a deliberate public policy to ensure the realization of the Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction introduced by the Federal Government under General Yakubu Gowon (retd) after the Nigerian Civil War.
“The Scheme aimed to raise a new crop of disciplined and detribalised Nigerians by allowing the youths to undergo national service in states other than there own for the purpose of national development and integration”, she said.
She then advised the corps members to take to heart all the lectures in the camp as this will come handy and useful during the service year.