Contrary to speculations that the National Youth Service Corps care less for the welfare of corps members in the camp and during their service year, the Osun State Coordinator of the scheme, Mr. Emmanuel Attah, has said that officials of the scheme are ready to lay down their lives for the well-being and safety of the fresh graduates.
Attah said that NYSC officials were sensitive to the welfare and condition of the corps members to the extent that they were ready to die in defending the interests of this cream of young Nigerians.
The coordinator, who is also a deputy director with the NYSC, noted that the security and welfare of corps members were of utmost priority of the staff, adding that the scheme had contacted necessary agencies, bodies and institutions to ensure that corps members carried out their assigned national assignment without any stress.
Reacting to reports that some secondary school students attack some corps members serving as teachers after reprimanding them, Attah noted that since he assumed office in January this year, such an incident had not been brought to his notice.
“Any school that its students attack our corps members will be blacklisted and we will make sure that such school never have the opportunity of having corps members posted to it again,” he said.
Attah, who spoke with our correspondent in Osogbo, said some of the challenges facing the NYSC in the state included lack of computers and other tools that could ease and modernise workers’ efforts, indiscipline on the part of some corps members, lack of befitting secretariat, inability of the state government to pay corps members’ stipends and the refusal of some corps members to stay in their primary place of assignments.
“When I was transferred to Osun State late January, the condition I met the state secretariat was not good at all. The offices look rough and lacking basic working tools to ease staff operations.
I also discovered that the secretariat is a rented building of which we pay the sum of N1.8 million every year. Yet, the secretariat is not convenient and getting too small for us.
I immediately discussed this with the state Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, and I also discovered that there is a piece of land that has been procured for a new secretariat, but sadly, the land is in dispute as some people are claiming ownership of it.
We are asking the state government to assist in reclaiming the land,” he said.
“I also discovered that corps members were not being paid their monthly stipend since 2014 and when I met with the governor, he assured that the government would pay them. In fact, the government has carried out a verification exercise for corps members between 2014 batch C to 2016 batch A.
The governor promised that the corps members’ stipend arrears would be paid into their bank accounts. “The most important thing for me is the security and welfare of staff and corps members. The welfare of corps members will be of utmost importance to us. I had a meeting with the staff and all senior officials and I have given them directives to ensure that corps members are well taken care of.
We must ensure that none of them is in distress. If there is any problem, we have to attend to them immediately, likewise the staff. I believe in team work. We are all being working together for the success of the scheme and we have some achievements to that. We prefer to lay down our lives than see any corps member die,” he said.
