The federal government has said that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has ceased assigning corps members to states considered “very unsafe.”
Concerns have been raised over the programme’s viability after several corps members were kidnapped in various regions of the country during their one-year mandatory national service.
The Minister of Youth, Jamila Ibrahim addressing the issue on Channels Television’s current affairs show “Sunday Politics” revealed that the programme has taken safety precautions by deploying NYSC members solely to safe states, among other measures.
She said: “As an immediate intervention of the government and the NYSC as an agency, we have stopped posting corps members to the very unsafe states.
“We have been doing it in the past. There are states we have not been posting corps members to, to ensure their safety.”
The minister explained that cooperation between various government entities, is necessary to ensure the safety of corps members.
“When it comes to security matters, it is a multi-sectoral approach. So, it is not the NYSC alone and the ministry that is involved. We are working with security outlets to ensure corps members are safe.
“We are also working on group transportation strategies for them to ensure that they are transported to and from camps safely and to their destinations”, she said.
Ibrahim indicated that to align with the current state of the country, especially regarding their allowance, the federal government is working on revamping the NYSC programme.
She added: “When it comes to remuneration, we are looking at the holistic funding of the NYSC. You are all aware that we have announced a reform of the NYSC scheme itself. We want the scheme to go beyond being a social programme of the government.
“The reforms will transform the NYSC into a revenue-generating agency and prepare corps members for the job market.”
