The Director General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier General Yushau Ahmed, has hinted that the Federal government is set to increase the monthly allowance of the Corps members once the ongoing negotiations on the new minimum wage are completed.
Ahmed also warned the corp members against posting camp activities on social media, saying that three corpers have just been expelled from the camp for flouting this camp rule.
The DG disclosed this on Saturday while addressing 2762 corp members of Batch B, Stream One, at Ogun State NYSC Orientation Camp, Sagamu.
Ahmed congratulated the individuals for making it this far to the orientation camp, as many of their colleagues had not been so lucky academically to have the privilege of being called a corp member.
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He urged them to take seriously the regimented training being given at the camp, maintaining that, though the training might be hard they have been designed to sharpen their leadership skills so as to be better Nigerians and be more useful to the society.
Ahmed said, “Let me also remind you of the camp rules that you are not allowed to post the camp activities online or on social media, three of your colleagues elsewhere were found breaking these rules and posting camp activities on social media, and they have decamped
Night journeys are also not allowed; in fact, unnecessary journeys should be avoided because we have lost many corpers to such in the past. We don’t want that again, even if you must travel, you must have taken your permission and found somewhere to sleep once it is 6pm.
And for your allowance, don’t worry, as soon as the ongoing negotiations on the minimum wage are concluded, you can be so sure that your allowance too will definitely go up. There is no way the government will forget you because you are really special”.
The DG who said he was highly impressed with the military skills displayed by the parade guard mounted for him by the corpers, urged the youths to consider a career in the military.
He appealed to the corpers to also take their security very seriously, adding that though the camp has provided water-tight security the onus also rests on the corp members not to go to where they are not supposed to be so as not to endanger themselves.
Ahmed also urged the corpers to respect the culture of the community they will be posted to for their primary assignment and and discharge their duties responsibly as worthy ambassadors of the 51-year-old scheme.
He thereafter donated four cows for the feeding of the corpers and this attracted loud cheering from the corpers.
Welcoming the DG, the Ogun State Coordinator of NYSC, Mrs Olayinka Nasamu, said that the camp, which opened on Wednesday, June 26, has a total of 2762 corpers comprising of 922 males and 1423 females.
Nasamu said that as part of a deliberate strategy to prevent the outbreak of cholera in the camp, hand washing stations had been provided at the entrance of the camp and some other parts of the camp where the corpers have been instructed to wash their hands and use sanitisers while also ensuring that the camp is kept clean.
She said that corpers have also participated in all the camp programmes, particularly, Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development, which aims at equipping the corpers with the skills to become job creators.
Nasamu listed the sinking of additional boreholes, provision of additional water reservoirs, inadequate bunks and mattresses, lack of functional ambulance as well as provision of proper food store as needs of the orientation camp.
(PUNCH)