Academy to train NYSC members on self defence

Academy to train NYSC members on self defence Martial Arts and Self -defence Academy (MASDA), is to train future National Youth Service Corps members on the art of self-defence, Mr. Richard Uboh-Ekon, the Combatant- General of the Academy said on Sunday. Uboh-Ekon told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the training was meant to equip the youths on how to defend themselves in times of crisis. He said the academy was discussing the details of the training with the management of the scheme. ``Our men are on ground ready to commence the defensive training for corps members to enable them to defend and protect themselves during crisis,’’ he said. Uboh-Ekon commended the former NYSC Director-General, Brig- Gen. Maharazu Tsiga, for his favourable disposition towards the project. He said that the academy, located in Karu, Nasarawa State, had trained more than 700 youths, aged 20 to 32, who would be deployed to different NYSC orientation camps to help in training corps members. Uboh-Ekon said corps members would be trained in the art of taekwondo, judo, boxing and wrestling, among others and explained that the training would neither be sports nor military in nature.

Corps member donates 100 helmets to commercial cyclists Okorite Isokariari gave drivers 1000 bins SEPTEMBER 11, 2011 - 6:22AM | BY VALERIE ANOFOCHI Okorite Isokariari, a corps member in Olorunda Local Government Area of Osun, on Saturday, donated 100 safety helmets to commercial motorcyclists in Osogbo. Isokariari said that the donation was borne out of the danger and risk associated with the business. He observed that many commercial motorcyclists in the state capital rode without using safety helmets, adding that the lack of funds was responsible for their inability to purchase them. He urged well-meaning Nigerians to donate more helmets to assist financially handicapped commercial motorcyclists. Isokariari, with NYSC number OS/10c/0382 and attached to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Osogbo, said that the gesture was part of his Community Development Service. The corps member also distributed 100 trash bins to commercial minibus drivers as a way of keeping the state capital clean. He urged the beneficiaries to keep the bins in their vehicles. In his remark, the state Chairman of Motorcycle Transport Union of Nigeria, Gbenga Ajenifuja, commended the initiative of the corps member and urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the helmets. FRSC Zonal Commander, Albert Moore, urged all motorcycle riders to always wear safety helmets. Moore, who was represented at the occasion by the Zonal Head of Motor Vehicle Administration, Cecilia Alao, said that the directive was for the benefit of the users. Some of the beneficiaries commended the corps member for his gesture. Nurudeen Alatise, a beneficiary, urged the officials of the local government to always remember the less privileged in their area. Another beneficiary, Suleiman Omotoso, expressed appreciation for the kind gesture, describing the donation as an answer to his prayer. Omotosho, an orphan, admitted that it was against traffic rule to ride motorcycle without a helmet, but said that his lean financial purse prevented him from purchasing one. He promised to always make use of it whenever he rode his motorcycle.

NYSC gets new DG

Tsiga bows out as Okore-Affia becomes new NYSC DG By Nats Odaudu Submitted by peterakpochafo on Tue, 09/06/2011 - 23:00 The former director-general of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Gen. Maharazu Tsiga, yesterday formally bowed out as the 15th chief executive officer of the 38-year-old organisation, as Brigadier General Okore-Affia Nnamdi becomes the new director-general. It was an unforgettable moment as encomiums were poured on the out gone chief executive by staff describing the one they fondly called “Ochendo” as wonderful for the un-precedented leadership their former boss provided in the organisation. In his farewell speech, Tsiga was full of appreciation to President Goodluck Jonathan who gave him all the support to be able to deliver during his tenure. He also thanked the members of staff and management whom he described to his successor as the best work force anywhere in Nigeria. He enumerated his achievements as the 15th chief executive of NYSC to include the upward review of corps member’s allowances; successful participation of corps members in the 2011 general elections; training of corps members in the NYSC MDGs War Against Poverty progamme; introduction of Corps Health Insurance Scheme and employment of ex corps members,who won the president’s honours award, among many others. As for his challenges, he regretted the inability of both the state and local authorities to providing appropriate security for corps members. In his response, the new director-general, Brigadier General Okore-Affia Nnamdi said he hoped the same support given to the out gone DG would be given to him also in order to be able to move the NYSC to greater heights.

NYSC Scheme And National Unity

NYSC Scheme And National Unity Mon, 29/08/2011 - 10:36pm The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme was established to ensure national consciousness, youth leadership skills for nation building, meaningful interactions and enduring relationships as well as national integration and unity among the various ethnic groups in Nigeria Although the programme, arguably, has not failed to achieve over the decades, nonetheless, these are definitely not the best of times for the current management and staff of the 38-year-old NYSC, introduced by the Gen. Yakubu Gowon military administration in the aftermath of the unfortunate civil war that raged between 1966 and 1970. The current pressure on the scheme is informed by the increasing insecurity of lives of its corps members due to killings, bomb attacks and kidnappings in certain volatile states in parts of the conutry, including Borno, Jigawa, Taraba, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Plateau and Bauchi to which graduate youths are being posted to participate in the one-year mandatory national service. There have been discordant calls on the appropriate authorities and prominent stakeholders, to either phase out or restructure the programme, vis-a- vis the guidelines for posting, welfare package, issues of security of lives as well as the deployment of corps members to places of primary assignment after mobilisation at the orientation camps, among others. Granted, that the federal government consequently has set up an investigative panel on the post-election violence, headed by Sheikh Ahmed Lemu to probe series of violent attacks that dotted the landscape at the time, and make recommendations for possible implementation, conflicting pronouncements, emanating from the leadership of NYSC at its national headquarters in Abuja, over guidelines on redeployment of corps members to preferred states are not helping matters in respect of re-assuring them and their parents or guardians that the nation has their interest at heart. An earlier memo from the office of the NYSC director-general, Brig.-Gen. Maharazu Tsiga, “In the light of the security uncertainty in Bauchi State, the NYSC management has considered it fit to waive all due process to expedite action on relocation” Yet, on realising that scores of serving and prospective corps members have kept seeking re-deployment to other states, the NYSC again, made a U-turn on the previous directive, saying it appeared to have encouraged corps members from all states of the federation, including the FCT, to besiege the national headquarters seeking relocation “for the flimsiest of reasons” The director-general thus, ostensibly stated in another memo: “All prospective corps members must proceed to their respective camps immediately. Relocation matters will be handled through the established procedure from their states of deployment:’ While one readily agrees with the leadership of the NYSC, that allowing corps members to serve in their states of origin will be against the NYSC code, the officials still need to realise the fact that they may be wrong in describing reasons advanced by concerned corps members seeking re-deployment as “flimsiest”. Human lives are precious, and once lost, they are simply irreplaceable! Perhaps we all need to ask ourselves this pointed question: Which rational parent or guardian will carelessly allow their sons or daughters in whom they have invested so much from birth, sheepishly march into the den by faceless terrorists to snuff life out of them in seconds while serving Nigeria outside their states of origin? To further impress it on the government that things are really falling apart with the scheme of recent, at least security-wise, the apparent lack of confidence in the capability of the state security apparatus has compelled the authorities of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), in Bomo State, following alleged threat letters from the Boko Haram sect, to shut down the institution indefinitely, while many non-natives are leaving the troubled state in droves for dear lives. Government, therefore, needs to take urgent proactive measures to resolve the Boko Haram wahala before it gets out of the hand. Most politicians with inordinate ambitions seeking political power at all costs for their selfish ends but masquerading as patriotic leaders must be told bluntly to stop their age-long hide-and-seek disruptive tendencies and outright hypocrisy in the form of inciting statements and disposition which surreptitiously fuel trouble across the land. The NYSC national headquarters, for now, should give express approval to requests of many corps members seeking re-posting to other states considered “safe”. These officials should stop playing chess with the lives of the nation’s youth. Continuing doing this will only encourage the generality of Nigerians to lose interest in the NYSC scheme completely. O.Kayode is CEO, Wordkraft Communications Limited Lagos

NYSC evacuees redeployed to South-West states

NYSC evacuees redeployed to South-West states
By Leke Baiyewu
Sunday, 28 Aug 2011

Forty-six members of the National Youth Service Corps from Ogun State that were evacuated from Bauchi State following the post-election violence have been redeployed to some South-West states.
The state NYSC Coordinator, Mr. Olayide Adeniran, told SUNDAY PUNCH that 46 of the affected NYSC members who received their letters of redeployment last week were reposted to various places of their primary assignment.
He said, “The national directorate of the NYSC has been on top of the situation since the occurrence. The corps members had a delay in their redeployment process due to misinformation.”
The Ogun State government, just like other southern states, had ordered the evacuation of its indigenes from Bauchi State, shortly after the April general elections, following a post-election crisis that left 10 corps members dead and several others injured.
No fewer than 150 corps members were brought into Abeokuta, the state capital, on April 25, 2011.
The then Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Olukoya Adeleke-Adedoyin, however, said about 400 corps members were reportedly trapped in Bauchi and that some of them had found their way home, leaving 150 others for the state to rescue.
One of the evacuees, who pleaded anonymity, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the 46 redeployed corps members were those in Batch ‘A’ only and that those in the Batch ‘C’were excluded.

Corp Member May Be Among Dead Terror Suspects

Nigeria: Corp Member May Be Among Dead Terror Suspects

Abdullahi Tasiu Abubakar
28 August 2011


A member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) may be among the terror suspects killed by the army in Adamawa State during Thursday's deadly attack on the central town of Gombi, sources told Sunday Trust yesterday.
A gang of about 30 gunmen raided Gombi town in broad daylight on Thursday, attacking police stations and banks and killing both security personnel and civilians.
About 18 persons, including at least six policemen and three suspected gunmen, were killed during the incident, which the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen O. A. Ihejirika, described as a terrorist attack.
Sources told Sunday Trust in Yola that one of the suspected gunmen killed by the army during the encounter was a serving member of the NYSC who was posted to Gombi to teach at a day secondary school.
Sources claimed that he was seen among the gunmen while they were operating in the centre of the town before an army reinforcement sent from Yola gunned him down.
Sources in Gombi claimed that an NYSC identity card was found in his pocket and that he had even participated in the weekly Community Development (CD) assignment earlier in the morning before the afternoon deadly attack.
Sources at the NYSC office in Yola said officials were making efforts to liaise with the army to recover his corpse but that the army had asked them to write formally requesting for the body.
No NYSC official was willing to speak about the matter on record because on were still uncertainties surrounding the issue.
One source told Sunday Trust that when the chief of army staff came to Yola on Friday, some NYSC officials tried to meet him along with the Brigade Commander in Yola to seek the release of the body; but that they were told to make a formal request in writing.
The army spokesman in Yola, Lt. Olukoya Victor, said he could neither confirm nor deny the story because he had not yet been briefed on the identities of the dead suspects or on a request for the release of any of the bodies.
"Honestly, I am yet to be notified of the full identities of the killed suspects. I know that full identification had been ordered, but I haven't been briefed yet," he told Sunday Trust yesterday.
The army had killed two of the suspects while the police had killed one--all of whose bodies were displayed to journalists on Friday.
State police commissioner Adenlere Shinaba, had then told a news conference that police had recovered only two mobile phones, one Motorola walkie-talkie, one camcorder and N5,000 from the dead suspect.
Police spokesperson, Altine Daniel told Sunday Trust yesterday that the suspect killed by the police was not a corps member. She said considering both his features and looks, he could not be a serving corps member.
During his visit to Yola at the weekend, the chief of army staff described both the Gombi raid and the bomb attack on the United Nations' offices in Abuja as terrorist acts.
He said the army would play its role actively in bringing to an end such kind of acts in Nigeria.

In defence of Tsiga

Nigeria: In Defense of Tsiga Tijjani 27 August 2011 Brigadier General Maharazu Tsiga had been in the eye of the storm following unpleasant experiences in recent past. Despite the good record the man had set for himself through the years, some public commentators chose to turn a blind eye and instead pretend as if nothing good had come out of his tenure as the Director General of NYSC. Two of such challenges in reference include kidnapping of corps members and post-election crisis. Kidnapping of corps members was one test that really hit the whole management of the scheme for it has never happened before. Though Gen. Tsiga stood on his feet to make sure that those corps members were released unharmed, little was mentioned of his effort even when that was successfully attained. Also the post - election violence that led to the killing of corps members was one challenge that almost threw the NYSC scheme off balance. Needless to say, the whole nation was saddened. Though not in any way his undoing, rather that of the security that Tsiga trusted to do their part, the blame was heaped on him with hundreds calling for his head. Those who castigated him at that time should know that the security of everybody lies with the state and all other relevant security agencies. He has no power over the security operations of any state where these corps members are posted and can only work in tandem with those saddled with the responsibility which he does prior to every posting. Moreover, he has demonstrated tremendous concern for their welfare. It is for this reason that he availed corps members with his direct phone lines so that good communication can be maintained between them in order to know what is happening to them at all times. The NYSC was established on 22nd May 1973 (thirty seven years ago). It cannot claim to be the only government parastatal that has been able to remain relevant since inception, but thankfully, it is not one of those that have become moribund. Therefore, the leadership of Marahazu Ismaila Tsiga, as enunciated above, has helped to ensure that the NYSC has remained focused on its mandate despite the challenges. Achievements of the NYSC since the coming of the present DG can be clarified from a five point policy directive: Also commendable is Gen.Tsiga's resuscitation of regular visits to all states and revival of regular management meetings to put heads together. In his time, the issue of honouraria to staff was moved to another level thereby boosting the moral of NYSC Staff most especially during orientation exercises. Tsiga made possible the implementation of new allowance to corps members. He has distinguished himself in the Nigerian Army. He is a proud recipient of the FSS, MSS, DSS awards of the Army. Like majority of his predecessors who had three years of tenure, it is most likely that this soldier gentleman can still deliver great services to the Nigerian nation through the ambits of the NYSC. Lastly, his tenure will be remembered by those sincere enough to admit, for a lot of transformation both on corps members and staff welfare. Tijjani wrote from Borgu Local Government, Niger State