The President of the National Inter-Faith and Religious Organization for Peace in Nigeria, Bishop Sunday Garuba, has commended the National Assembly for considering the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Trust Fund Bill, saying that the Bill will provide a permanent solution to the unemployment crisis in Nigeria.
In a special message on the group’s reflections for 2021, the highly respected cleric said that Nigerians have every reason to be thankful to God despite all the challenges.
According to Garuba, the country is still recording success in various sectors and only deep retrospection would reveal all that we have gained as a nation.
He also prayed for Nigerian leaders particularly those behind the Bill to establish the NYSC Trust Fund as God-sent who are not only out to make a name for themselves but to do God’s work.
He averred that the Bill is to “provide a sustainable source of funds for the NYSC, skill acquisition training and provision of start-up capital to corps members, train and retrain the personnel of the NYSC, develop camps and the NYSC formations and provide facilities therein.”
The Cleric maintained too that the NYSC Trust Fund when passed into law will also “improve the general welfare of corps members and personnel of the scheme and enhance their preparedness to effectively discharge their statutory duties of promoting national unity, integration, self-reliance and accelerated development of the national economy.”
Garuba said he has perused the bill and found out that the proposed law will, therefore, provide a legal framework for management and control of the special intervention fund established under Section 3 of the Act.
He added that the bill partly read, “The Trust Fund established under Section 3 of this Act covers all corps members, personnel of the NYSC, orientation camps, formations, facilities and for the overall improvement and efficiency in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities”.
Bishop Garuba also commended the NYSC DG, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, for rejuvenating the Skills Acquisition & Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme to empower hundreds of thousands of young Nigerians for self-reliance.
He noted that with the NYSC’s SAED initiative, many young Nigerians have embraced entrepreneurship and are now full-scale business owners and employers.
The Bishop also acknowledged the efforts of the NYSC DG in flushing out fake graduates from participating in the Scheme, revenue generation and infrastructural face-lift.
He said that the DG’s exceptional leadership came to the fore during the peak of the coronavirus where corps members rendered medical services.
According to him, the enrollment of corps members into the National Health Insurance Scheme, infrastructural development and movie production are all the brainchild of the Shuaib Ibrahim led management which is a huge development welcome for all.
He, however, said the passage of the Bill will further equip the NYSC for more service to the country.
Nnenna.O
