Stakeholders in Anambra State have appealed to institutions to liase with community leaders and government with a view to provide accommodation in secured environment to serving National Youth Service Corps members amidst the insecurity across the country.
The stakeholders, who spoke at the 2021 corps employers workshop held at Nibo, Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra State, under the title, optimising the NYSC/corps employers partnership for national development in the context of the new normal, observed that not providing corps members with beftting accommodation and other welfare exposes them to insecurity including sexual assault, kidnapping, immorality, robbery and death.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr Iyke Okeke, a teacher resident in Awka, said it would be easier to improve on the welfare of corps members if the employers could identify with the leaders and wealthy people at their place of primary assignments for assistance.
A guest speaker at the programme and Principal, Federal Government College Nise, Dr. Mrs Ijeoma Ekumankama, represented by Ms Obiageli Onwuka, also implored corps employers to empower NYSC members serving under their respective establishments with skills in order to make them employable at the end.
Delivering a lecture entitled the role of ideal core employers as acatlyst for effective service delivery, Mrs Amaka Anaekwe, the principal of Holy Cross School, Umuawulu, admonished employers to engage corps members with various responsibilities in their offices, as well as orientate them on the cultural practices of their host communities, works ethics and rules and regulations guiding their establishments for optimum service delivery.
Earlier, the Director General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, represented by the state NYSC coordinator, Mrs Yetunde Baderinwa, identified some of the challenges facing the scheme to include increasing rejection of Corps members; aiding Corps members to stage-manage their own rejection; lack of provisions for statutory welfare needs of Corps members; and inadequate provisions for Corps members’ security;
He further appealed to employers to utilise the services of Corps members, provide them with basic welfares, comfort and skills so as to enable them not only to contribute to nation building but become employers of labours at the end of their service years.
