Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel, has made case for the sustenance and improvement of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), scheme, describing it as a viable bonding platform.
He, however, called for an inclusive system to endure adequate deployment of corps members and representation of states at the top echelon of the agency.
Speaking through the secretary to the state government, Emmanuel Ekuwem at the State House, Uyo, where he played host to the National Governing Board of the NYSC which paid him a courtesy visit while in the state, said the scheme has been a unifying agent in the country.
He enumerated the various ways the NYSC has facilitated inter-regional and inter-ethnic relationships, in terms of marriages and other socio-economic engagements, as well as cross-religious interactions among young Nigerians, maintaining that such a mix was healthy for the unity of the nation.
He also solicited the inclusion of Akwa Ibom indigenes in the appointment of state coordinators of the scheme, describing the goals of the scheme as laudable.
Read also: NYSC, a unifying scheme, under threat
The governor, who commended the achievements so far recorded, however, recommended the upgrade of the scheme to make it more inclusive to neutralise the effects of the activities of some anti-state actors recently confronting the nation.
“People talk about the country breaking up and all what not, but I say the country will not break up. Nigeria has so many bonding mechanisms in place. One is NYSC, a very strong bonding platform”.
While assuring the NYSC National Governing Board of the state government’s support for the scheme, in maintaining and upgrading its facilities, the governor called on the visitors to join voice in urging the Federal Government to restructure the power sector in the country to give more privileges to major stakeholders like Akwa Ibom State that generates a significant percentage of nation’s electricity, so as to meet the power needs of her cooperate and individual citizens.
In her remarks, the chairman, the NYSC board, Fatima Balla Abubakar, acknowledged the support of Akwa Ibom State government for the scheme in the state and the hospitality the visiting team has enjoyed in the state.
She, however, pleaded for more interventions by the state government in terms of support to improve power supply, expansion of hostels and staff quarters, dining hall as well as landscaping of the camp environment to check flooding.
