General Yakubu Gowon, former Head of State and founding father of the National Youth Service Corps, has praised the scheme’s administrators for maintaining the vision that inspired its creation more than fifty years ago.
General Gowon said this while Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, the recently appointed NYSC Director General, paid him a courtesy call at his home in Asokoro, Abuja.
In a statement signed by the Acting Director, Information and Public Relations of the NYSC, Caroline Embu, on Wednesday, Gowon acknowledged the initial resistance the NYSC faced from Nigerian students at its inception in 1973.
However, he noted that the NYSC had since evolved into a nationally recognized platform, promoting unity, integration, job creation, and youth empowerment across the country.
“The former head of State and founding father of the National Youth Service Corps, General Yakubu Gowon GCFR, has 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, 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.
“He acknowledged the multi-dimensional contributions of Corps Members to national development over the 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,” the statement partly read.
He urged Brigadier General Nafiu to build on the legacies of his predecessors and take the scheme to greater heights.
Brigadier General Nafiu responded by calling the NYSC “a divine project that has been of significant blessing to the country.” He also thanked General Gowon for his ongoing support and asked him to serve as his mentor as the scheme’s leader.
