New Telegraph

Lagos: NYSC pleads with govt to complete orientation camp

The Lagos State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme, Mr. Eddy Megwa has appealed to the state government, led by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to complete the state’s permanent Orientation Camp under construction at Agbowa, Ikorodu axis of the state.

 

This is as he said that the temporary NYSC Orientation Camp at Iyana-Ipaja is no longer convenient and comfortable for the corps members, as some of the corps members deployed to Lagos are being dislodged to Ogun and Oyo States Orientation Camps for the orientation exercise before coming back to Lagos for their primary assignment.

 

Megwa, who made the appeal during the swearing-in of 1,631 corps members deployed to the state for the 2021 Batch ‘B’ Stream 2, said the corps members needed a more spacious and convenient location to function and participate adequately in the various orientation activities.

 

The Coordinator, who challenged the corps members and graduates to think of what to do as the nation is drifting because of the unemployment crisis, noted that the NYSC introduced the Skill Acquisition Programmes to train  and engage them in order to be self-reliant after their service year.

 

Under the NYSC Skill Acquisition Programme, he hinted that every corps member is exposed to no fewer than 12 vocational skills in order to acquire at least one skill that would equip them to be self-reliant and job creators, rather than seeking white collar jobs that are not readily available.

 

“We take our corps members through a compulsory nine-day skills acquisition programme, where they are trained in 12 trades/skills.

 

This has been part of the prerequisites for the NYSC orientation programme. We also do post-training follow up for them to ensure that they sustain the skills acquired.

 

They have all key to the programme. The nation is drifting and our graduates should think of what to do for themselves,” he said. On the ravaging Delta variant COVID-19 pandemic, the Coordinator, who pointed out that the Lagos Orientation Camp, is COVID-19 free, said all the corps members, NYSC and Camp officials as well as visitors are mandatorily tested by the officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) stationed in the camp before they could be allowed into the camp.

He, however, told journalists that it is also mandatory for corps members, as well as NYSC and Camp officials to uphold the COVID-19 protocols by regularly wearing face masks, washing of hands with soap in running water and use of alcohol-based sanitisers which are provided in all nooks and crannies of the camp.

 

On security strategies put in place, the Coordinator, who insisted that security is a sensitive issue that should not be discussed openly, said adequate protection and security had been put in place in the camp to ensure safety of corps members.

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