PROTOCOLS
1. I am pleased to join you all, on this unique occasion in recognition of the outstanding service of our youth, in the course of service to our nation.
2. Today’s ceremony marks a crowning point in the year-long service activities of the NYSC Scheme and Corps members to our fatherland.
3. The conferment of the President’s NYSC Honours Award on these worthy young men and women, who have diligently served the nation through the National Youth Service Corps Year, is an important moment in youth motivation. It is designed to highlight and promote the creative and innovative contribution of our youths, focused towards building a strong, virile, vibrant, united and prosperous Nigeria.
4. There is no doubt that since its inception over forty-one years ago, the NYSC Scheme has continued to play a significant role in actualizing our quest for a united nation. In addition, it is also complementing vital manpower requirements in education, health, infrastructure development, entrepreneurship and critical skills.
5. I therefore commend all managers and successive batches of Corps members for the patriotic zeal with which they have sustained the cardinal programmes of the Scheme, since inception. Above all, I salute the founding fathers of the NYSC whose ideals have not only continued to inspire successes of the noble Scheme, but also remained relevant in the developmental efforts of our great nation.
6. The giant strides recorded by the scheme through its Community Development Projects have greatly contributed to improved living standards of our rural dwellers in all sectors. I urge States and Local Governments, to offer accelerated assistance to the Scheme on programmes of community and rural development and with special emphasis on Agriculture.
7. Let me reiterate my administration’s abiding faith and confidence in the ability of our Corps members and, indeed, the entire youths of our nation to sustain the unity and indivisibility of our country. You must at all times, work conscientiously and tirelessly for the cohesion of our country by regarding your compatriots as brothers with whom you share a common stake in progress and well-being.
8. I commend the various efforts of the Ministry of Youth Development and the NYSC towards skills acquisition training. This includes youth entrepreneurship development initiatives aimed at job creation, enhanced service delivery and rural development.
9. Worthy of note is the scheme’s collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs for the implementation of the War against Poverty – a programme that has empowered over three hundred thousand Corps members with skills and follow-up loans for the establishment of agro-based businesses.
10. These collaborative efforts with other agencies towards actualizing the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda, demonstrates the adaptive capacity of the Scheme to identify with lofty programmes of Government.
11. Furthermore, the collaboration of the NYSC with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the one hand, and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on the other, in creating platforms for Nigerian youths to achieve self-reliance through agriculture will no doubt contribute to National Food Security, as well as actualise this administration’s commitment to creating new generation of farmers.
12. The NYSC must therefore ensure that its efforts to establish theIntegrated Farm Settlement Scheme nationwide becomes a reality, without further delay.
13. On our part, we will continue to accord priority to youth development through policies and programmes that will empower them not only for economic survival, but also for future leadership roles in our nation.
14. The Federal Government will continue to initiate policies and programmes that are focussed on our youths. So far, we have put in place the National Schools Agriculture Programme, the You-Win Programme, the youth empowerment component of the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) and in no distant time we will be establish a National Youth Development Fund to ensure that our vision for empowered youth is firmly irreversible.
15. As part of our Transformation Agenda, Government gave approval for the NYSC to establish a Department of Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development. It is encouraging, from all indications, that the corps members have eagerly embraced this programme.
16. The NYSC HOPE ALIVE PROGRAMME (NYSC-HAP) which seeks to identify and recognize Corp members who had the misfortune of becoming physically challenged as a result of injuries they sustained in the course of their National Service to our fatherland is one programme that is very dear to me.
17. The concern demonstrated by the NYSC in identifying and recommending some of them for appointment into the Federal Civil Service, while also assisting others financially, to enable them cater for their needs, is highly commendable. We must take care of the needy without hesitation.
18. The prompt response and pragmatism with which the Scheme addresses issues of national emergencies has also been demonstrated in the way it has successfully keyed into the global campaign against the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease. We are proud of the NYSC’s contribution which put in place appropriate awareness strategies about the disease, in our rural communities through the NYSC combating Ebola Virus disease programme.
19. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me note with pleasure the laudable corporate social responsibility and uncommon concern for youth development displayed by some banks through the offer of automatic employment to these awardees. Let me seize this opportunity to appeal to other Corporate Organisations to emulate this laudable initiative as the expertise of these distinguished Nigerians should be utilised by both public and private sectors.
20. Once again, I congratulate all awardees on your well merited recognition and honour. The entire nation salutes the determination, courage, discipline, commitment and hard work, which you all exhibited during the service year.
21. In line with our policy of encouraging our youths to always strive for excellence, including serving and prospective Corps members, I hereby announce immediate employment of the award winners in the Federal Civil Service, as well as automatic scholarship up to Doctorate level in any University of their choice across the globe. I urge you to always be good ambassadors of this great country, and we shall continue to look up to you for greater vision and accomplishments.
22. May the Almighty God continue to bless the NYSC Scheme and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
23. I thank you all.
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