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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The National Commandant, Peace Corps of Nigeria, Professor Dickson Akoh, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the bill for an act establishing the Nigerian Peace Corps passed recently by the National Assembly.
Akoh, who made the appeal, on Thursday, at a press briefing, in Abuja, said organisation like the Nigerian Peace Corps, are established with the sole aim of engaging youths meaningfully, as part of solutions, to the challenges of unemployment in the society.
Consequently, he argued that assent to the bill will be a deserving parting gift by President Buhari to the youths in the country, as the legislation is designed to address the plights of young persons in the country.
Akoh, while appreciating the National Assembly for passing the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill, said assent to the legislation will also give impetus to quest by the government to address the security challenges in the country.
According to him, “the dynamic nature of insecurity in Nigeria today requires role differentiation as a panacea to expertise in addressing security challenges. It also requires multi- sectoral, multilateral and multi- dimensional approaches to tackle. In more advanced societies, Youth Based Organisations like the Nigerian Peace Corps, are established with the sole aim of engaging and pre-occupying the youths as a panacea to the social consequences of been unemployed.
“Similar organisations that exist in other parts of the world are: the American Peace Corps, Canadian Peace Corps, Bangladesh National Cadet Corps, Peace Officers Commission in China, Chinese Labour Corps, Lera Uniform Corps of Malaysia, Malaysian People Volunteer Corps, Production and Construction Corps of China, etc.
“All these are consciously and deliberately designed to empower and socially pre-occupy the youths so that their state of idleness won’t be exploited adversely.
“The entire contents, especially the functions contained in the Bill is indeed a summation of an inclusive empowerment programmes for the youth and on how to harness their innate potentials for the over all tasks of nation-building.”
