Yemisi Izuora
The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, is working out a partnership arrangement with the National Council for Arts and Culture, NCAC, to boost its revenue drive, and also empower Corps Members that are talented in Arts and Culture.
NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim stated this when he visited the Director-General, National Council For Arts And Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe in his office in Abuja.
He said Management of the Scheme established NYSC National Cultural Troupe, and introduced NYSC Cultural Festival which are avenues for Corps Members to showcase their talents and also promote the rich cultural heritage of the country.
The Director-General urged Otunba Runsewe to visit the Orientation Camps to address Corps Members on the need to use their talents positively and avoid social vices.
“Kindly make your expertise available to us by coming to our camps to address Corps Members.
Also invite our Corps Members to perform at National and International festivals”, the Director-General said.
Speaking further, Ibrahim added that the Scheme is working on a film that would educate the general public on the NYSC Act, statutory responsibilities of all stakeholders to the Scheme and also showcase the contributions of the Scheme to national development.
He added that as a way out for the Scheme to reduce unemployment rate among graduate youths, the NYSC in 2012 introduced Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme (SAED) which has produced a large number of young entrepreneurs.
In his remarks, the Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe described NYSC Scheme as a tool for fostering national unity, adding that the NYSC has the largest number of inter-tribal marriages in the country through its deployment policy.
Otunba Runsewe who commended General Shuaibu Ibrahim for his initiative to launch a better platform for the future of Nigerian youths said there’s the need to provide a virile environment for the Nigerian youths to thrive for better self expression, assuring that the NYSC/NCAC partnership would secure a better future for Nigerian youths.
“We must engage our youths from the beginning. Together, NYSC and NCAC can make Nigeria great because the two agencies are a coin of two sides”, Otunba Runsewe said.
The DG NCAC added that the partnership would also reduce unemployment and crime rate among youths.
He appealed to Corps Employers not to reject Corps Members, but rather provide an enabling environment for them to discharge their statutory responsibilities and also showcace their individual talents for national development.