Taiwo Popoola
A former head of State and founding father of the National Youth Service Corps, General Yakubu Gowon, has noted that Nigerian students resisted the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC when it was first introduced.
He commended the managers of the Scheme for sustaining the vision that informed the establishment of NYSC.
He said, “The NYSC was greeted with strong opposition from Nigerian students across the country at inception.”
He said, however, that the Scheme had not only overcome the initial misgivings but had grown to become a nationally recognised and accepted tool for fostering national unity, integration, development, job creation, and youth empowerment in Nigeria.
Gowon stated this when the newly appointed Director General, Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu paid him a courtesy visit at his residence in Asokoro, Abuja.
He acknowledged the multi-dimensional contributions of Corps members to national development in the over 50 years of the Scheme’s existence.
He further praised the deployment policy of NYSC, which exposes Corps Members to the various peoples and cultures of Nigeria, by posting them to States and geographical locations other than their own.
While congratulating Brigadier General Nafiu on his appointment, Gowon urged him to build on the legacies of his predecessors by propelling the NYSC to greater heights and also wished him well.
Brigadier General Nafiu described the initiative of establishing the NYSC in 1973 as a divine project that has been of immense blessing to the country, positively impacting generations of Nigerians.
Nafiu, who said the visit was to solicit for General Gowon’s blessings, expressed appreciation for his fatherly role to the Scheme, and appealed for his continued mentorship.
The NYSC was established by the Gowon administration as part of the post-war programme designed to reconcile, reconstruct, and rehabilitate Nigeria after a bitter 30-month-long civil war ravaged the country.
