The National Youth Service Corps has said that the payment of the sum of N500 daily to every corps member as meal allowance by the Federal Government during their stay at the orientation camp is grossly inadequate.
According to the NYSC, officials at the orientation camps in the country get only N300 naira each as their meal allowance daily.
The corps, however, appealed that the allowances should be reviewed upward in order to give the corps members satisfactory welfare in terms of feeding.
But the NYSC noted that inspite of the meagre daily meal allowance currently paid each corps member during the orientation exercise, it had been making efforts to ensure that appreciable meals were made available to them.
The Coordinator of the NYSC in Osun State, who is also a former coordinator of the Super Eagles, Mr. Emmanuel Attah, stated this while speaking on a radio programme monitored by our correspondent in Osogbo.
Attah expressed displeasure at the insensitivity of state governments towards the maintenance of NYSC camps, saying the constitution specified that the maintenance of such facilities fell under their purview.
While commending other states for discharging this obligation, he asked the others to ensure that the camps in their states were properly maintained and managed.
Attah said some Nigerians calling for the scrapping of the NYSC should have a rethink, saying that the critics of the scheme had not been fair.
“They (Nigerians) have not been fair for saying NYSC should be scrapped. After three years of scrapping NYSC, we (won’t be able to) walk the streets of Nigeria again,” he said.
He also asked state governments to ensure that corps members serving in their states were paid stipends to compliment the allowance paid them by the Federal Government.
Attah disclosed that the last time Osun State paid corps members’ stipend was 2014, saying this should not be encouraged.
He also noted that many corps members were in the habit of evading their places of primary assignment by compelling their employers to reject them.
The state coordinator added that some pregnant corps members and those nursing babies had formed the habit of rejecting exemption letters from NYSC.
He said, “Some corps members are desperate to serve. They even come to camp with all sorts of ailments just to meet their clearance deadline. Even nursing mothers are eager to serve.
Some of them and pregnant corps members, play hide and seek in the camp just to escape exemption letters.
“Corps members ask employers to reject them and they return their letters to us asking for redeployment to another primary assignment. Don’t allow corps members to dictate to you. NYSC always includes it in their letters for their employers to assist them in some ways.”
