We got jobs while serving – Pioneer corps members My aim of creating NYSC not defeated – Gowon

Some pioneer corps members of the National Youth Service Corps yesterday said they got many job offers during their national service year.

They spoke to Daily Trust in Abuja during the commissioning of the NYSC Information Communication Technology Centre.

Amb. Gregory Kas Enegwea, a graduate of the University of Ife, who served in 1973, had said between his final year in school and the period of the national service, he got nine jobs.

He said he taught at Queen Amina College, Kaduna as a corps member; and that despite the nine jobs offers he got, he chose to remain a teacher after his youth service owing to his love for making impact in the society through education.

He said during their time, organisations employed corps members and provided them accommodations.

He appealed that the NYSC should not be scrapped.

Another pioneer corps member, Alh. Garba Haliru, said: “I had never crossed the River Niger or River Benue. As a northern Nigerian from Jigawa State, posted to Lagos State, I was able to witness other people’s lifestyles and get some exposure.

He said as an English graduate from Bayero University Kano, he taught several subjects at a local government training school owned by the Lagos State Government.

He said right from NYSC orientation camps, corps members were getting job offers during their time.

Haliru urged corps members not to seek redeployment so that they could make impacts in the society and maintain the mandate of the NYSC.

My aim of creating NYSC not defeated – Gowon

Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) yesterday expressed delight that the purpose for which his regime created the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1973, which was to reunite

Nigerians and ensure peaceful coexistence, was not defeated.

He spoke in Abuja while commissioning the NYSC Information Communication Technology Centre.

He noted that the scheme was created on May 22, 1973 when the country’s peaceful coexistence was being threatened, saying it was one of the most far-reaching decisions of his regime.

Gowon said it was a battle when “we started the scheme as it faced rejections, but we succeeded after much efforts.”

“The scheme, which was conceived fifty years ago as a child of necessity, to bring our youths, graduate youths together for one year period of public exposure and national service for the promotion of national unity and integration, has now become a cynosure of attraction both within and outside the shores of Nigeria.”

He added that the NYSC was established at a time “the unity and peaceful co-existence of our country was just recovering and at a low ebb.”

He commended past and present managements of the NYSC for building on the legacies of the founding fathers of the scheme.

Gowon also affirmed that all corps members who obeyed the clarion call to undergo the one year youth service training contributed immensely to the success of the scheme and the development of their fatherland.

He said the NYSC had remained a vital reference point and a tool for fostering national unity and integration.