From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As voices of reason on the passage of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Trust Fund keep dominating the media space, Coalition of Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders of Nigeria (CENYLON) on Thursday asked the responsible committee in the green chamber of the National Assembly to speed up the remaining process(es) and ensure speedy passage of the bill into law.
When passed into law, the NYSC Trust Fund which had already scaled through the first reading, second reading and public hearing, would grant the scheme financial autonomy to fund its mandate without necessarily waiting for allocation from the federal purse.
Spokesman for CENYLON, Faruk Mohammed Ofoku, who read the press text commended the Director-General of NYSC, Major-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, the Leadership and members of the House of Representatives for the successful public hearing on the bill.
To him, with the dwindling resources accruable to the government, “the funding of the NYSC has continued to reduce drastically to the level that major responsibilities of the states and local governments are shifted to the federal government.
“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.
“The successful passage of the bill and its implementation will play a significant role in curbing the menace of insecurity, as ex corps members with business ideas will secure funding thereby keeping them busy and equally position them as employers of labour
“The bill is coming at a time entrepreneurship studies have been made compulsory for all courses in our over tertiary Institutions of learning. While the students are trained to be self-reliant, the Fund will help corps members to develop realistic business ideas that will make them self reliant and employers of labour.
“We, therefore, wish to call on the House Committee on Youth Development to tidy up their report for final passage by the house and concurrence by the Senate.
The Coalition believe that President Muhammadu Buhari who has shown unprecedented support for youth development via provision of various low-interest-rate facilities to budding businesses will gladly sign the passed bill into law”, he said.