21st January, 2020
Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, the Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) says efforts are on to achieve a drastic reduction in cases of evasion and abscondment from service, especially by foreign-trained Nigerian graduates.
Mrs Adenike Adeyemi, the Director, Press and Public Relations of the scheme, made this known in a statement on Tuesday Abuja.
Adeyemi stated that the NYSC boss made the remark while addressing NYSC Legal officers’ Workshop with the theme “NYSC: Call to Service’’.
He said that the scheme was determined to continue to sensitise Nigerians on its enabling laws to avail them a better understanding of the obligations of the scheme to avoid infractions.
Ibrahim charged NYSC legal officers to educate other members of staff and the public on both the NYSC Act and the Scheme’s bye-laws as it would also assist them in the successful handling of litigation matters.
He said “I charge you to brace up for the onerous demands of your schedule. l expect you to be abreast with developments in your profession, especially through self-development efforts.
“At the same time, we expect consolidation of the achievements of the Corps Legal Aid Scheme through the provision of more effective guidance for Corps Lawyers.”
Ibrahim said that the recent national sensitisation workshop on the NYSC Act in Abuja revealed that many Nigerians were unaware of the provisions of the Act.
He noted that over the years, achievements of corps lawyers included; handling of litigations in courts on behalf of indigent accused persons and payment of court fines for some prison inmates.
Others, he said, were visits to correctional centres, orphanages and old people’s homes, career talk and guidance for secondary school students.
The NYSC boss commended the efforts of the legal officers and other stakeholders who had been instrumental to the achievements recorded so far.
He said ” I also want to appeal to partners and public-spirited Nigerians to support corps members toward sustaining their good works, especially in rendering assistance to the less-privileged in the society.
“I enjoin both the legal officers and corps lawyers not to rest on their oars, especially with regards to the enlightenment of the citizenry on their rights and responsibilities under the law.”
NYSC Director of Legal Services, Mr Ibrahim Tijjani, said that the workshop was aimed at bringing together, NYSC Legal officers to brainstorm on the scheme’s Act, CAP. N84, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.