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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
A Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and youth groups on the aegis of the Centre for Equity, Justice and Transparency, in collaboration with the Save Nigeria Movement, have scheduled a a one-day national dialogue to examine proposed reforms to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Act.
The national dialogue, which is by legal practitioners Sorkaa Tsembelee and Patrick Agbese, is aimed at providing a platform for critical stakeholders to make meaningful contributions to the ongoing conversation on the future of the NYSC, before the Federal Government concludes its review of the scheme.
The organizers, in a statement, on Friday, the dialogue would harness stakeholders’ perspectives to reposition the scheme in line with its founding mandate. They noted that the outcome of the dialogue will be compiled into a working document to be presented to the Federal Government as a broad-based contribution to the reform process.
According to them, any reforms to the NYSC should preserve the scheme’s core mandate of promoting national cohesion while strengthening complementary objectives such as skills acquisition, entrepreneurship and youth empowerment.
They said “the essence of this dialogue is for critical stakeholders to make input into the proposed NYSC reforms before the President’s administration takes final decisions.
“We will have senior academics, former corps members, youth groups and other members of society to dissect the proposed reforms thoroughly.
“It will thereafter catalyse into a working document for the Federal Government. We will invite the CDS, the Army and others. Let everyone look at it and say their own,” the statement read in part.”
The Federal Government recently proposed reforms to the NYSC, which was established in 1973, in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War, to foster national unity and integration.
