By Eze Victor
Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State on Friday charged the corps members to take the fight for nation-building beyond cultural, religious, and ethnic boundaries.
The governor made the call during the swearing-in ceremony of the 2024 Batch ‘C’ Stream ‘1’ Corps members at the scheme’s permanent orientation camp, Old MacGregor College, Afikpo North local government area of Ebonyi State.
Nwifuru, represented by the Director of Youth in the state Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Lawrence Orji, said the people across the country are looking up to them for a better nation.
He noted that the Corps members would be exposed to various national issues as well as the language, culture, and tradition of Ebonyi State during their orientation course and enjoined them to take the training seriously, by participating actively for self-development.
He further enjoined the corps members to build on the enviable records of their predecessors and serve creditably while putting their best into play so that they could surpass their predecessors knowing full well that his government would always reward excellence in service.
He said his administration would continue to ensure adequate security and welfare of the Corps members in Ebonyi and urged them to be willing to contribute their quota for the development of the state.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the NYSC State Governing Council and Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Prince Richard Idike, represented by the Head of the Administration in the ministry, Mr Silas Oginyi equally expressed the state government’s readiness to ensure adequate security and welfare of the Corps members in the state.
In her address, the NYSC State Coordinator, Mrs. Oladeinde Foluke said: “1,150 prospective Corps members, made up of 550 males and 600 females, were deployed to Ebonyi State, and they have been duly registered.” She commended the Corps members for having demonstrated a high sense of discipline, dedication, and willingness to learn in the orientation camp.
“They have also shown great enthusiasm, as well as responding satisfactorily to the regimented nature of the camp, which I consider as an initial evidence of their determination to succeed in the program,” she said.
The Coordinator, however, charged the Corps members to be active participants in the camp activities while calling the local government chairmen and Corps employers to make adequate arrangements to convey them at the end of their orientation course.
She commended the state Governor, Chief Francis Nwifuru, for his support to the NYSC so far and, however, noted that the permanent camp of the scheme in Ebonyi lacks electricity because of the non-connection of the national grid.
She added that the camp has no perimeter fencing to ensure adequate security of its facilities and “needs the renovation of dilapidated hostel blocks just as lack of official vehicles for the state coordinator, utility vehicles for inspections, and an ambulance had been hampering our work at the secretariat.”
Foluke assured that the NYSC would continue to deploy Corps members who are ever ready to contribute their quota for the development of the state.
