The Federal Government says it has concluded plans to mobilise 250,000 graduates for the Batch A National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) for the compulsory one year service nationwide which starts on March 28.

Minister of Youth Development, Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi, who disclosed this at an interactive session with newsmen in Osogbo, also revealed that a proposal for the reform of the NYSC was now before the Federal Executive Council.

Senator Akinlabi said for the forthcoming NYSC camp/orientation year, government has made provision for the mobilisation of 250,000 graduates of Batch A corps members from the nation's tertiary institutions.

According to him, the presidency has provided funds to enable the management of NYSC to mobilise the Batch A corp members and that they are expected to arrive their various states of posting to begin the camp/orientation programme on March 28.

His words: "We have registered about 85,000 corp members and from indication we might not get up to 100,000 for the Batch A exercise. Since we came on board, prospective corps members were mobilised and allowance were paid regularly. Government spends N144,000 yearly on each corps member".

The minister revealed that the present administration cleared the backlog of corp members waiting to participate in the compulsory one year service as well as increased the allowance paid to corp members from N7,500 to N9,400.

He lauded President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua for summoning a stakeholders meeting to tackle the controversy surrounding the inability of NYSC management to mobilise the 2007 corp members, saying: "Provision was made to mobilise 125,000 corp members for Batch B but we only received 55,000 graduates and the left over funds were returned to government coffers.

Senator Akinlabi further revealed that he submitted a proposal to FEC meeting on how he intended to reform NYSC to meet the present reality on ground and that the paper was referred to the Ministry of Justice for vetting.

"We are trying to reform the NYSC, when the corp members complete their one-year service, they don't have to go about searching for jobs. In the reform, I have proposed that the last two months of the corps member’s primary assignment be devoted to skills acquisition and enterpreneurship training for self-employment or for them to meet the labour market requirements for jobs," he explained.

Another aspect of the proposed reform of NYSC, Senator Akinlabi stressed, is to engage the corp members after their service in the agriculture sector rather than search for white collar jobs and that with this kind of arrangement, the corp members could feed the nation.

In a related development, registration of prospective members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) would henceforth be done through the NYSC website.
A statement from the Osun State NYSC secretariat, Osogbo, said the NYSC e-registration would reduce the time of registration of corps members in the camp.

According to the statement, the would-be corps members would download the information supplied and bring copies of it and their call-up letters to the camp, where they would be screened to authenticate their claims.

The only document they have to fill in the camp, according to the release, is the certificate format, which would be used to write their certificate of national service at the end of their service year.
It added that the would-be corps members would be informed of when they are to assess the information on the internet, before they go to the camp.

The 2008 Batch ‘A’ orientation course has been scheduled to hold in two groups from Wednesday, March 26, to April 16, and Monday, April 21, to May 12, 2008 respectively.

The release from the NYSC secretariat in Osogbo said the first group would be sworn in on Friday, March 28 while the second group would be sworn in on Wednesday, April 23, 2008
According to the statement, 3,230 corps members have been deployed to Osun State for the two groups that are to serve in the state during the 2008 Batch ‘A’ service year.

The Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola is expected to deliver the address of the President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua during the swearing in ceremony of the two groups of the corps members.
The state Chief Judge, Justice Fasasi Ogunsola is expected to administer the NYSC oath of allegiance on the corps members at both occasions.