By Jane Williams
Former head of State and founding father of the National Youth Service Corps, General Yakubu Gowon, says Nigerian students resisted the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, when it was first introduced.
General Gowon stated this when the newly appointed Director General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu paid him a courtesy visit at his residence in Asokoro, Abuja.
He acknowledged the multi-dimensional contributions of Corps Members to national development in over 50 years of the Scheme’s existence.
He further praised the deployment policy of NYSC, which exposes Corps Members to various peoples and cultures of Nigeria, by posting them to States and geographical locations other than their own.
While congratulating Brigadier General Nafiu on his appointment, Gowon urged him to build on the legacies of his predecessors by propelling the NYSC to greater heights and also wished him well.
On his part, the Director General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu described the initiative of establishing the NYSC in 1973 as a divine project that has been of immense blessing to the country, positively impacting generations of Nigerians.
Nafiu who said the visit was to solicit for General Gowon’s blessings, expressed appreciation for his fatherly role to the Scheme and appealed for his continued mentorship.
The NYSC was established by the Gowon administration as part of the post-war programmes designed to reconcile, reconstruct, and rehabilitate Nigeria after a bitter 30-month long civil war that had ravaged the country.
