NYSC Introduces New Policy On Fitness For Corps Members

Sixteen members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) serving in Anambra are to repeat their service year while three others will serve various terms of disciplinary measures.  

The Anambra NYSC Coordinator, Mr Ebenezer Olawale, who made the disclosure on Thursday in Awka, said no formal passing out ceremony was held in the state. Olawale added that certificates were issued at the various local government NYSC offices. 

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 2, 158 corps members successfully concluded their service year and were issued with discharge certificates.  NAN also reports that seven deserving corps members won the Governor’s Award, while four went home with the Chairman’s Award as the youth members passed out on Thursday.  The coordinator congratulated the outgoing corps members but regretted that 19 of them were to face disciplinary measures, with 16 repeating their service, while three would serve extension of between two and four months.  On the upcoming Nov. 18 governorship polls in Anambra, the NYSC coordinator said that the body still had enough manpower to take care of its expected role in the election.  “There are no fewer than 8,000 corps members currently serving in the state,’’ he said.  Olawale noted that his office would work with the NYSC offices in neighboring states to Anambra to take care of any shortfall in the provision of personnel for the election.  He said the discharged corps members who wished to take part in the election were at liberty to stay back but no one was under compulsion to do so.  Meanwhile, the Director-General of the NYSC Brig.-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, will visit Anambra to address corps members ahead of the governorship election.  Olawale told NAN that Kazuaure would hold a one-day interface with the corps members on Nov. 7 alongside heads of other security agencies in Anambra at the Alex Ekweme Square in Awka.  

According to him, the director-general’s visit was largely to speak to the corps members who would serve in ad-hoc capacity during the election on the need for them to be neutral.

The National Youth Service Corps has announced that prospective corps members will henceforth be required to present fitness certificates from recognised public health facilities at orientation camps across the country.

Adding that the certificate of fitness will become a requirement for registration at camps, the Director, Press and Public Relations of the NYSC, Eddy Megwa, said in a statement that the new policy begins with the 2022 Batch ‘C’ Orientation Course.

The director said the fitness test is to help the scheme ascertain the health status of corpers and to fish out those who lie about their medical conditions.

Megwa said, “In order to avail the scheme credible information on their health status and also protect them from exploitation by unscrupulous persons.

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“It is pertinent to note that the NYSC Orientation Camp Clinics across the nation are managed by the National Health Insurance Authority with the supervision of consultants from tertiary health institutions.

“In view of the regimentation and physical demands of some activities of the NYSC orientation programme, the management of the scheme introduced presentation of Certificate of Fitness from recognised public health facilities by prospective corps members as a requirement for registration at the orientation camp.

“The essence is to enable camp officials manage those who are not fit to undertake certain activities in the camp. This has been largely misunderstood, leading to extortion of some prospective corps members by fraudulent individuals in their bid to secure such documents some of which may not stand a test of integrity.“

NAN