By John Oba
Minister of the Federal Capital territory (FCT), Muhammadu Musa Bello, has revealed that his administration will commence preparation for the relocation of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp to its permanent site, this year.
This is even as the state coordinator, Mr. Balama Bello Birniwa, called on prospective corps employers to “pay them allowances that can sustain them.”
The minister, who was represented by the chairman, NYSC FCT board and secretary, FCT secretariat, Alhaji Oladimeji Ali Hassan, while addressing journalists at the closing ceremony of the 2017 Batch ‘B’ Stream II orientation camp, Kubwa, on Monday, said “once the 2018 budget is passed, the FCT will commence preparation for the relocation of the camp to its permanent site.”
“FCT is working on the new camp for the NYSC, very soon, we will get to the permanent site, though, we had a little funding constraint, but we are getting over them, as soon as the 2018 budget is passed, we will commence preparation and I am sure, in a few years, we will be moving there.
“But while they are here, we are constantly doing renovation of the camp, currently we are working on the hostels, because if we leave the facilities without touching them, they would get worst. We also have plans to work on the fields, for their recreation very soon,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “Let me draw your attention to various issues that some of you may wish to take for granted. Please accept your posting in good faith and proceed to your places of primary assignments without delay. Do not hesitate to respect the socio-cultural and religious learning’s of your host communities and so not embark on any journey without the permission of your coordinator.”
He urged employers not to reject corps member posted to them, saying the Scheme had collected letters from those indicating interest, but promised that the posting would be based on geopolitical considerations to reflect neutrality and decency.
“In every request letter the employers must indicate that they are ready to accommodate the corps members or give them money in lieu of that, but not just any kind of money, but at least such that would get the corps member decent accommodation. And to solve the problem of corps rejection, we are trying as much as possible to disregard corps members coming to determine where to be posted to, because most of them don’t have any experience, once they hear that a place is absorbing corps members, they think, such place will be absorbing continuously, not knowing, that it may be limited available there. But now, they would be posted to where they are needed, this will reduce the problem of rejection.”
