Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has extolled the National Youth Service Corps on the active 50 years of fostering national unity and development.
The Governor, who was represented by his deputy, Mr Kayode Alabi, gave the commendation during the Unity Walk to commemorate the scheme’s golden anniversary scheduled for May 22.
AbdulRazaq specifically hailed the scheme for consistently upholding the unity of the nation over the past 50 years, while also lauding the Corps Members for several community development service projects across the state.
He said: “I encourage you to be focused in your service to our fatherland, Nigeria. Youths, being the major constituency of the society, must inculcate the core values of integrity, hard work and continue to develop themselves to become better citizens of the country.”
He, however, enjoined Corps members to use the NYSC platform to discover themselves and invest in personal development.
Meanwhile, while addressing corps members and officials at the NYSC Secretariat before commencement of the rally, Kwara State Commissioner for Youth and Chairman of the state NYSC Governing Board, Hon. Olabode George Towoju, applauded the corps members for their tenacity in serving their country even in the midst of difficulties, tasking them to further uphold the tenets of patriotism and to continue to be law abiding.
For his part, the Kwara state Coordinator of the NYSC, Mr Jimba Olawale Chris, noted that the scheme has come of age and has impacted the society in various ways, such as education, primary health care, among others, via the Instrumentality of various Corps Members Community Development Services.
Mr Jimba opined that the scheme would continue to be a veritable platform for the remodeling of the Nigerian youths for national development, adding that “the scheme has over the years grown to become one of the highly revered federal government’s established schemes that has done the country proud in all respects. Standing strong as a monolith amongst all platforms of unity and has actively grown into an active agent of unification and national transformation.”
It would be recalled that the NYSC was created by Decree no 24 on May 22, 1973, which was promulgated by the regime of the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, “to keep Nigeria one”, and primarily to conceptualized and strengthen national cohesion and integration.
