A retired Diplomat, Amb. Martin Uhomoibhi, says the proposed National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Trust Fund was key to Nigeria’s survival.
”This proposed fund would be one of the best things that will happen to Nigeria since her independence in 1960.
”The NYSC Trust Fund is about the future of Nigeria and all hands must be put on deck, to enable it to see the light of the day,” he said.
Uhomoibhi, who was a retired Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, disclosed this on Tuesday, in Abuja, at the closing of a three-day symposium on the imperatives of an NYSC Trust Fund.
The former envoy, who is also the President of, Pan African Institute For Global Affairs and Strategy, added:” The fund is possible, its doable and it can be done.”
The President, Historical Society of Nigeria, Prof. Okpheh Ochayi, noted that after 45 years of existence, the scheme required ” rejigging and re-tooling.”
In the paper entitled: “An overview of the imperatives of an NYSC Trust Fund,” he said: ” This is more to reasonably tackle some of the transmuting challenges it has continued to contend with.
They include: ”Paucity of funds, declining infrastructure, constraints imposed by the rapid increase in the population of corps members, poor remuneration for staff and corps members and indiscipline.”
Ochayi, who is also a Professor of African History, Federal University, Lafia, noted that an NYSC Trust Fund should provide the scheme relative financial autonomy.
”It should also deepen its operational capacity, empower it to more effectively confront the emerging economic challenges of the 21st century. It should strengthen the NYSC to contribute even more to national development,” he added.
