The Lagos State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Mr. Eddy Megwa has expressed concern that some Nigerians that passed through the scheme are agitation for it to be abolished.
Megwa explained that the scheme has helped the youths and the entire country in national development in the last 48 years.
The coordinator who spoke recently at a Unity Match to commemorate 48 anniversary of the scheme in Lagos, said if the scheme is scrapped several sectors of the economy would be affected. He pointed out that the contributions of corps members in the education and health sectors alone cannot be overemphasized.
His word: “It is very worrisome that some Nigerians that passed through this scheme are calling for it to be scrapped. Anybody that has gone through the principles of the National Youth Service Corps will never call for its extinction because this scheme has helped the youths.
‘’It has helped the entire country. Look at education for instance pull out corps members in the education sector most institutions will fail. They will collapse. In some secondary schools and primary schools in Nigeria, you won’t believe it, corps members are principals and headmasters.
“So they are contributing to a very large extent in the corporate existence of this country and developing the country. Look at the health sector, in Lagos alone, I have 400 doctors in Lagos State reaching out to all the rural health centres. Without NYSC how will these doctors be reaching out to the hinterlands, people that cannot access medical facilities but they are there doing the service. Nobody should think about scrapping the scheme.
“We should shun some acts that divide us, we should rather rejoice as one, be the Nigerians that we are supposed to be. NYSC is for national integration, it is for unity, it is for a way of guiding our youths to do it right and make Nigeria the nation that we want it to be,” he stressed.