Buhari gives 65 ex-corps members automatic jobs
President Muhammadu Buhari has granted automatic employment in the Federal Civil Service to 65 former members of the National Youth Service Corps.
He disclosed this yesterday at the NYSC 50th Anniversary Honours Award held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
He said 52 of them received the Presidential Honours Awards; and 13, who are physically challenged, were recognised under the NYSC Hope Alive programme.
He said both groups would also be awarded scholarships to pursue their education up to the Doctorate Degree level at any university of their choice within the country.
He announced a cash prize of
N250,000 for each of the top award winners and N200,000 for other award recipients.
He directed the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Federal Civil Service Commission and the Minister of Education to ensure adherence to the employment offer and the scholarships.
Buhari paid tribute to Corps Members from the batches being honoured, who lost their lives under various circumstances while serving the nation.
He also sympathized with the ex-corps members that sustained varying degrees of disability during the service year, acknowledging their significant sacrifices for the progress of the country and assuring them that the nation stands in solidarity with them.
He praised all Nigerians who had answered the call for mational service in the past fifty years for their patriotic zeal and commitment to the NYSC mandate.
He said the NYSC had justified its establishment as an interventionist agency, with a core mandate to foster national unity across the country, thereby breaking down ethnic suspicions and divisions.
“The multiplicity of marriages contracted over the years by corps members, cutting across the boundaries of ethnicity and religion in no small measure, justifies my assertion,” he said.
He appreciated General Yakubu Gowon, the founding father of the Scheme, who conceived the idea of the NYSC and brought it to fruition on May 22, 1973.