A cross section of servingĀ National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members have pleaded with the commission to consider the introduction of transport fare subsidy for Corps members to ameliorate the effect of hike in transport fare.
The Corps members lamented their harrowing experience towards gathering resources to meet not only the requisite demand for admission to camp but transport fare to Osun State from far North, East and Southern parts of the country in the face of astronomical hike in transport fare.
According to the Corps members, the laudable 22nd of May,1973 established scheme has turned sore for prospective corps members due to insecurity and economic downturn in the country.
Some of those who spoke to me at the Osun camp in Ede, revealed the hardship their parents and guardians encountered sourcing funds to meet demand of servicing their country.
While supporting the scheme, a corps member from Borno State, Alimat Goni who claimed that it cost her N42,000 to travel to Osun State, said she had to go begging brothers and sisters cap in hand when her parents could not meet the transport fare demand.
She lamented the inability of one of her friends, Salamat, to go for posting in Edo State due to financial constraints.
Goni noted that if provisions were on ground to assist corps members financially where transport fare is concerned, her friend would not have dropped out.
Corroborating Goni’s submission, Chukwudi Emmanuel from Ebonyi State said he spent a whooping N34,000 to get himself transported to Osun State.
Emmanuel who also supported the idea of transport subsidy said such a provision will encourage Corps members to accept any state they are posted to, adding that it will serve as incentive if such subsidy provision is substantial.
Meanwhile, Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke called for an immediate reform of NYSC to effect an institutionalised Public-Private Partnership in the management of the scheme.
Welcoming NYSC DG, Brigadier General Yushau Dogara Ahmed to his office, Adeleke said the present structure and model of the NYSC is unsustainable considering the prevailing fiscal state of the nation.
Calling the NYSC a gemstone of the Nigerian State, the governor appealed for a reform of the service to expand private sector, either through review of the enabling act or a federal instrument of reform.
He said Osun State is particularly interested in the NYSC, because it is a platform that has helped to produce Nigerians who truly see themselves as patriots.
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