The Republic of India has stated its readiness to strengthen its cooperation with Nigeria on youth empowerment and offer capacity-building training for Nigerian Corps Members.
The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhay Thakur disclosed this when he paid a courtesy visit to the National Youth Service Corp Director-General, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim in his office in Abuja the nation’s capital.
He commended the Scheme and its roles as the only Federal Government Agency that manages graduate youths for national development.
The diplomat further disclosed that India also has the National Cadet Corps (NCC) of more than one million youths, which like the NYSC has a large gathering of the youth population.
He extended his country’s invitation to the NYSC to select Corps Members and officials that would participate in the Republic Day Parade to mark the seventy-fifth Independence Anniversary celebration of India, which comes up in January next year with many Heads of Governments across the world in attendance.
Thakur added that India had collaborated with different Nigerian Government agencies through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Budget and National Planning for technical and economic collaboration.
“We are delighted to extend our Hitech programme to the NYSC through financial hub, management, agricultural practices, media and communications. We feel very happy to extend this programme and collaborate with the NYSC.”
” The aim of the NCC of India is to develop character, comradeship, discipline, the spirit of adventure and self-service”, he added”
The Director-General, Brigadier Shuaibu Ibrahim congratulated all Indians on the seventy-fifth Independence Anniversary.
He said the NYSC was established to promote national unity and integration as a fallout of the Nigeria Civil War.
General Ibrahim said that the Scheme is the only agency in the African continent that mobilises so many graduate youths for Service every year.
He promised that the criteria for the selection of Corps Members that would participate in the anniversary would be transparent.
General Ibrahim informed the Indian diplomat that Corps Members performed creditably during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year by producing different anti-COVID-19 items such as facemasks, hand sanitizers, liquid soaps, foot-operated water and soap dispensers, among others, which were distributed free to Nigerians nationwide.
“Corps Members have been contributing immensely to National Development they have lots of potentials, and they have been sensitising Nigerians on the non-pharmaceutical anti-COVID-19 protocols”, he said.
He emphasised that the partnership with National Center for Disease Control , NCDC Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 has assisted the government on data analysis of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
The Director-General added that the NYSC was involved in the establishment of a similar youth agency in the Gambia.
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