Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Ondo State Governor Mr Rotimi Akeredolu has said that the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) made
him a detribalised Nigerian.
The Governor said, “I am a strong beneficiary of the National Youths Service Corps programme because the Scheme provided me with the opportunity to marry my beautiful angel who is from another geo-political zone.”
Akeredolu stated this when the NYSC management and corps members in the state visited him to celebrate his birthday.
According to him “the NYSC is a programme that has made great impact on us as a nation as it is evident in the inter tribal marriage which I benefited from.”
Akeredolu said that without the youth service programme, he would not have been able to deeply understand another culture, not to talk of marrying outside his kith and kinsmen.
He said that his service year provided him with his wife three decades, Mrs Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu.
The Governor, who had did national service in the 1978/79 service year, thanked the NYSC for identifying with him during the celebration of his birthday.
Speaking earlier, NYSC AState Coordinator Mrs Grace Akpabio said that the visit was to celebrate an icon and a leader who has shown great compassion on the scheme since his assumption of office two years ago.
Mrs Akpabio said that the presence of the NYSC in celebrating “our own is to say thank you to Akeredolu for hosting the top echelon of the management nationwide during the 2018 NYSC Annual Management Conference adjudged to be the best in recent years by the then Director General, Major General Suleiman Zakare Kazaure.”
She said the government assistated the NYSC in the construction of a perimeter fence at the camp, and release of brand new operational vehicle to its secretariat to enhance corps inspection.