Abuja Bureau Chief
Authorities of the National Youth
Service Corps have cancelled the
2010 Batch III passing-out parade
slated for October 4, as part of
measures to forestall attacks by
terrorists against corps members.
The Director-General of the NYSC,
Brig. Gen. Nnamdi Okore-Affia, who
confirmed this during a parley with
senior journalists in Abuja, Friday,
explained that he was determined
to take every necessary step to
protect the corps members
throughout the country.
His words, "you are aware that the
Independence celebration is low-
keyed. We will follow suit and have
the passing out low-keyed as a
means of ensuring the security of
all our corps members. Some areas
may not be conducive for
congregating at this time."
The D-G who unveiled two
focal points of his
administration said he was
setting up a 24-hour
Distress Call Centre, DCC,
with a view to improving
the security of all members
and would be employed to
maximum effects in rapid
response.
The Centre being located at
the headquarters in Abuja,
he said, would be
networked with all NYSC
State Offices to ensure
speedy information flow and
would contain a data base of all
serving members, at every point in
time.
He identified the safety and well
being of corps members, as well as,
skills acquisition as the two key
areas that would receive most of
his attention.
Speaking further on the DCC, Brig.
Gen. said "at the point of
registration, each corps member
would be required to provide a
functional phone number which
officials of the scheme at the state
level would send to the
headquarters along with the place
of primary assignment to create
the data base".
With that arrangement, the D-G
said any corps member faced with
danger could make a distress call or
send a text message and that
working in collaboration with the
police and other security agencies,
the response time would be
shortened.
The NYSC boss rejected calls to post
corps members to sates close to
their homes, saying that such a
step could further polarize the
nation and defeat the objectives of
the scheme which was established
in 1973 to strengthen the bond of
brotherliness among Nigeria's
various ethnic nationalities.
He appealed to all well-meaning
Nigerians and community leaders
to protect corps members in their
areas, as according to him,
members of the scheme who could
be easily identified by their
uniforms should be encouraged in
their services to their fatherland.
The D-G assured parents, however,
that even though his
administration would not stop
posting corps members to any
state of the federation, no member
would put on harm's way through
posting to areas, he described as,
"flash points".
His words, "we cannot exclude
them(volatile states) from the NYSC
because they are part of this
country. But we will post them
(corps members) to areas that are
easily accessible to the authorities.
The flash points have to be
reviewed".
