The Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) is seeking support for its National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members essay competition aimed at engendering national cohesion and youth development.
The Executive Secretary of the BSN, Pastor Samuel Sanusi, made the call for support on the sidelines of the 11th NYSC Essay Competition, Awards and National Symposium held on Thursday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the competition with the theme: “Re-engineering the Nigerian System for Sustainability Development” is to steer patriotism in youths.
Sanusi, who spoke on the benefits of the programme, called for corporate and government support for the programme to enable open to participants from all faiths and transcend the present generation.
“A sponsorship of the concept that tends to galvanize youth ingenuity toward national ideals will dovetail into a progressive society that we all long for.
“Those finalists can be given scholarship for higher degrees in the tertiary institutions to help them widen their horizon on managerial and policy articulation, which will benefit the country.
“The corporate world and government can take over the sponsorship of the yearly programme to help it transcend the NYSC threshold to include university students and co-opt them into the platform that proffer solutions to national challenges instead of sitting on the fence.
“The programme is inclined to grooming leaders that can through collaboration with others dismantle structures of ethnic sentiments for the common good,” he said.
The executive secretary bemoaned the involvement of youth in social vices and organised crimes, saying the younger people were full of latent energies waiting to be positively harnessed without which their potential would be wrongly put to use at the detriment of the society.
NAN reports that BSN is a non-profit interdenominational Christian organisation that translates the Bible into Nigerian languages and raises funds for Bible works among other functions.
The BSN has translated the complete Bible into 26 Nigerian languages, while the translation revision is ongoing in 10 Nigerian languages to making understanding of the Bible easy. (NAN)