A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), the Coalition of Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders of Nigeria (CENYLON) in Kaduna on Thursday, sought support for the establishment of a special Trust Fund for members of the National Youth Service Corps.
The organisation also called on prominent Nigerians to support the Bill before the National Assembly.
At the press briefings were president, Coalition of Ethnic Nationality of Nigeria, Mallam Salihu Danlami; President, South South Concerned Youth for Peace and Stability, Abela Emmanuel; Coordinator, South East Parliament, Engr. Rodney Nnamdi; President, Unified Nigerian Youth forum; Moh’d Kazeem, as well as Chairman, North East Youth for Peace, Gadzama Ibrahim.
The Spokesman for the CENYLON, Faruk Ofoku while addressing journalists at the media briefing held at the Arewa House, Kaduna, also hailed the Director – General of the NYSC, Shuaibu Ibrahim, and the leadership of the House of Representative for the successful Public Hearing on a Bill seeking to establish the National Youth Service Corps Trust Fund.
He said the Bill if passed to law would no doubt address the myriads of challenges such as infrastructural deficit in the orientation camps and provide lodges for corp members in states and Local Government Areas, ensure adequate provision of other operational logistics among others.
Ofoku also added that should the bill sail through, it would expand NYSC ventures to enhance revenue generation as well as address the problem of graduate unemployment in the country through training and empowerment of corp members.
He said, “The Coalition of Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders of Nigeria (CENYLON) is an umbrella body of influential youth leaders from various ethnic groups in Nigeria with memberships strength of over 25 million.
“We want to start by commending the Director-General of NYSC, major-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, the Leadership and members of the House of Representatives for the successful Public Hearing on a Bill seeking to Establish the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Trust Fund.
“As you may be aware, the NYSC at its inception mobilized 2,364 graduates for the scheme. However, due to the proliferation of government and private owned tertiary institutions to meet the needs of our population, the scheme now mobilises over 400,000 graduates annually. This implies that more funds are required to achieve the objective of the scheme.
“We are aware that the NYSC was established under a tripartite arrangement, with the Federal, States and Local Governments having various responsibilities as spelt out in the NYSC Act Cap N84 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.”
Seeking for support, the spokesman said, “We wish to strongly call on believers in the Nigeria project and in indissolubility to support the Bill that seeks to establish a Trust Fund for the NYSC, akin to that of the Tertiary Education Fund, TETFund, Gas Infrastructure Fund that was recently established in Petroleum Industry Act.”
