14th February, 2017
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) says it will adopt agriculture as the major job creator for corps members.
Mr. Salawu Abdulrazak, the NYSC FCT Coordinator, made this known in Abuja on Tuesday.
Abdulrazak explained the scheme was concluding plans with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to achieve this target.
He said the NYSC was having talks with the ministry to see how its farms in some parts of the country could be prepared to enable corps members to learn the methods and skills of agriculture.
Abdulrazak said this would also help the scheme address the problem of corps members’ rejection by employers who were posted to their establishments for their primary assignments.
“We all know that agriculture is the way to go in this country; we are therefore talking with the ministry of agriculture to see how they can prepare our farms for us so that a large set of corps members can be taken to farms.
“Before you know it, Nigeria will bounce back to where it is supposed to be.
“We keep saying corps members are rejected by prospective employers but there is no one who will reject a corps member in the farm.
“I do not really want to call it rejection; may be an organization is over saturated with the number of corps members given to them; so they are just releasing the corps members for other establishments to take.
“When you want to talk of corps rejection, I do not really want to see it as rejection as such.
“It is sometimes the influence of the community itself; parents, guardians or friends insist that they want their wards to serve in particular places like CBN, NNPC and so on.
“If you post corps members to these kinds of places that are already oversaturated, of course definitely somebody will tell you their services are not needed.
“When this happens, it makes it difficult for the scheme to control this system of postings and rejection.
“Therefore, I want to urge parents and wards to allow these corps members to be posted to where their services are needed the most.
“And, if you look at where their services are most needed it is in the rural areas where we want to integrate and develop the rural communities,” Abdulrazak said.
He said that the scheme owned several farmlands in some parts of the country, including Kwali in the FCT, Benue and Plateau states, among others; but added that these farmlands were yet to be cultivated.
He called on the Federal Government to support the scheme in its efforts to reach the target by assisting it to put in place necessary structures to kick-start the venture.