13th June, 2012
Brigadier-General Nnamdi Okorie-Affia, Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has decried the incessant requests for posting of corps members to places of their choice.
According to a press statement signed by Mr Sheu Bello, a Public Relations Officer, in the NYSC, the director-general restated his commitment to the Nigerian project in the deployment of prospective corps members to the 36 states of the federation and the FCT for national service.
He said that a situation, where individuals would send in requests for posting of their wards to choice places was contrary to the NYSC posting policy.
Okorie-Affia had earlier warned parents to desist from seeking preferential posting for their children and wards.
Findings, however, revealed that concerned parents still besiege the headquarters of the scheme to seek for posting of their children to choice places.
Some of the corps members, who earlier spoke with NAN, said the request became necessary because of the increasing spate of violence in the country.
Okorie-Affia said that postings based on requests would no longer be accepted, adding that the purpose of the scheme should not be jettisoned.
The former Minister of Youth Development, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, on Nov. 17, 2011, told the management of the NYSC to stop posting new corps members to Borno and Yobe.
In compliance with the directive, the authorities of the NYSC then announced that as a result of security challenges in Borno and Yobe, corps members would not be posted there.
In reaction to the announcement, Alhaji Ahmed Shetima, Governor of Borno, then paid a courtesy visit to the minister pleading that the minister should reconsider his decision.
The NYSC scheme started in 1973.