Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), has said that the increase of the monthly revenue of corp members is tied to a little action of the minimum wage.
The NYSC boss in an interview with Daily Trust said, “Wherever I go, the corps members keep asking, ‘This 19k (N19,000), when will it go?’ But I keep explaining to them that it is tied to the minimum wage and with a little fraction on the minimum wage.”
Speaking further, he explained: “I can assure you if you scrap NYSC, there is nothing to replace it. Mr. President recently said the NYSC, the military, and the police remain the only institutions that unite the country.
“As the current chief executive of the scheme, I was also a corps member, and like everyone, I also have stories of my experience. Apart from the military and the police, which another institution is able to bring together over 300,000 youths together and mobilize them to other parts of the country? It is NYSC.
“We always have about 350,000 corps members in the scheme annually, and they are everywhere despite the security challenges. When I had an interview with a media house, I told them that most of the deaths recorded during the service year were not on account of insecurity, but road traffic accidents.
“Most corps members embark on journeys without permission. One of the unfortunate deaths recorded is the Shiite protest where a corps member lost his life. The government does not joke with the welfare and security of corps members.
“The president sent a letter of condolence to the family, while the vice president of the country and the Governor of Kaduna State went to visit the family of the slain corps member in Zaria. All we appeal, which is why we need the press, is to help us enlighten Nigerians that NYSC is the only organ that will help in uniting this country.
“If there was no NYSC, I wonder what this country would be like by now because virtually everyone has a story to tell, including the staff of NYSC who were once corps members. Now that I have come on board, I have tasked the staff of the scheme and other scholars that we are coming up with a book titled: NYSC and National Development.
“I am sure it is going to be well encapsulated so that Nigerians will get to know more. In the area of community service, the projects embarked upon by corps members are of a great memory. The information at my disposal, when it comes out, Nigerians will marvel and nobody will call for the scrapping of the scheme.”
