Osun state Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Emmanuel Attah, has said that the Bakery and Gari processing unit of the scheme has been opened.
He said he had put up the Bakery and Gari processing unit when he resumed on the 25th of January, 2017, as the state coordinator of the scheme.
Speaking with newmen on the preparation of the scheme for the 2019 general elections, Attah said the NYSC is fully prepared to ensure the peaceful conduct of the election.
He said, “there are many things we have done in this state and first of all, I can say that my staffs have made it possible. I have been able to motivate them, change their orientation and key into my own dream of how I want the Secretariat to be run and what I want to achieve in the state. Thank God they’ve been very cooperative.
“On the legacy, we’ve been able to put in place a bakery, which is the only one as far as NYSC is concerned nationwide. We have a garri processing unit. We have built a sixteen bed (four bedroom) capacity clinic on camp which we intend to open to the public. Our camp is the only camp in the country that has CCTV camera for the security of the corp members. E-Camera is presently on camp. As I’m talking to you, we are presently building a 400-capacity hostel on camp. We would soon complete it.
“We are proud to say that Osun State camp is being rated as one of the best, if not the best in the country. In this regard, we have received two commendation letter consecutively from NYSC headquarter. As part of motivating our staff and appreciating them, we organised an annual award night. We did it in 2017 and we did the second one in December 2018. We appreciated staffs, the media and our collaboratives agencies who added value to us.
“Also, we ensured that the welfare and security of our Corp members is of paramount to us. As regard welfare, we’ve been able to get the state government to pay corp members state allowances. We are grateful to the government for that. Our Corp members who are serving in private organisation, we ensured that such private organisation pay them certain stipends and also give them accommodation. Where they did not give them accommodation, they pay in lieu.
“We also ensured that the corp members are disciplined and carry out their assignment as directed. We are lucky to also be part of the electoral processes in Osun State. We actually participated in the senatorial election that brought in Senator Ademola Adeleke and the governorship election that brought in Governor Gboyega Oyetola. We are proud of the role we played. There are so many things we have done.
“I can’t forget that we don’t have a Secretariat of our own. Where we are today is a rented place. We met the Ataoja of Osogbo who has given us five acres of land. We are in the process of putting things in place. The Osogbo Progressive Union has promised to help us on the construction and we hope they will keep to their promise.
“I initiated the projects and it will interest you to know that all these achievements were through contribution from my staffs and friends. Luckily, we have had opportunity to invite the Governor who came to perform his first assignment at NYSC and he promised to do everything possible to make us comfortable.
He described the cooperation he enjoined from the community as “wonderful, saying “in fact, I feel at home. I wish I can settle in Osun State. Not only with the staffs and stakeholders alone, with the government, I have enjoyed wonderful cooperation. Apart from the financial problem which of course we all know the situation of the country, the former Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been very accommodative. It will surprise you that the present Governor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, came to NYSC for his first official assignment when we did closing parade. He has been very accessible since he was the Chief of Staff.
“As usual, we are prepared, we are set. We have been sensitising our Corp members before now. We have the local government inspectors that had gone for two days training with INEC in the state. We intend to go round to all the local governments to talk with corp members on the importance of this election. The NYSC is apolitical. We belong to all. We have to ensure that we continue to give credibility to the Nigeria electoral process.
“We don’t have a Secretariat of our own. Every year, we pay over N1million on rent. Also, there is no apartment for the state coordinator. I pay for the rent. Aside that, all these vehicles are vehicles that government gave us about fourteen years ago. That is one other major challenge. Also, there are very few corp lodges in the state. We suppose to have enough corp lodges in all the local governments, these are very minimal. We have brought this to the notice of the former Governor Rauf Aregbesola. We hope the present Governor will see to many of our demands.
“When you see your staff very cooperative, very hardworking throughout the year, you must have a way of appreciating them. It is not just a question of coming and eat, we try to do something that their great grandchildren can see and say so my Daddy or my Mummy has done something like this. So also our collaboratives agencies, all of them have done very well. We have to find a way of saying thank you. We also encouraged others to continue to collaborate further. The press have been very wonderful to us. We tried to pick the best out of them. So, it is a way of saying thank you to them and also a way of asking more from them.
Speaking on the rate of youth employment, he said “the rate of youth unemployment is a very big challenge especially this graduates, when they finish, how do you place them. But, NYSC in its wisdom, precisely in 2012 introduce the skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development programme where these corp members are trained in different skills so as to be self-reliant and also become employer of labour, and this has greatly helped to ameliorate the rate of unemployment among the graduates. Most of the corp members are doing very well today. Many of them are not thinking about government job again. I want to encourage government to expand more on this and make loan facilities easy for these youths to access whereby they can expand the various ventures they have started. I think the government is doing its best but we still need to do more. One area that I want to really emphasize is the area of agriculture where the youth should be encouraged to participate more. They can only do this by providing enabling environment for them. Make land available, let there be accessible loan, the equipment should be made accessible for them so that they can go into mechanism farming. If these youths are able to access land easily, I can assure you that they will all key into agriculture. But, when you don’t have easy access to land, there is little they can do? If they can do that, we will be talking of food sufficiency in Nigeria.
“I’ve always told the politicians to stay away from my corp members because they will not listen to them. My advise for them is that they should sell themselves to the electorates. If you are good, you are good. The electorates know those that are good and they will vote for them. If you are good, sell your programme to the electorates. I can assure that the corp members will carry out their assigned duties as being directed diligently and with all sincerity.”
