One of the cardinal objectives of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in Nigeria is to ensure corps members involve in meaningful Community Development Service (CDS) in their host communities.
Their service has not excluded the troubled northeast, as the region ranked tops among areas needing development in the nation.
In recent past, the Boko Haram insurgency in the region has deprived most states of this rear privilege, forcing many corps members to choose or request for redeployment. Some even refuse to report to camps in fear of terror attacks.
With the gradual return of peace in some troubled areas, some courageous corps members have commenced CDS projects in the unstable states to contribute their quotas to the reconstruction and development of their places of primary assignment.
‘Refused To Be Persuaded’
A female corps member, Miss Uddin Rita Oluwatosin, despite pressure from her parents to redeploy to other safe states in Nigeria, insisted to offer her national service to the volatile Yobe State.
“My deployment to Yobe State was strongly opposed by my family who did everything possible to compel me to seek redeployment, considering the security challenges bedevilling the state but I refused to be persuaded, having been instructed by God not to influence my posting in anyway,” she told Channels Television’s correspondent, Jonathan Gopep.
Her commitment is unique in the region where many employees working within the insurgency states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe had long abandoned their various places of work and took refuge elsewhere for “safety”.
But Miss Oluwatosin dares the Boko Haram insurgents to perform her National Youth Service Corps shceme in Yobe State.
Within the period, the extra ordinary corps member trained 60 students cut across public and private schools in the state capital and also designed zebra crossing in six different schools.
“I have successfully taken these students through the theoretical and practical processes and procedures of cake making and decoration and I have urged the school authorities to systematically take steps in engaging these young minds to train the rest of their mates and ensure its continuity.
“The zebra crossing and the road signpost CDS project were undertaken to enhance the safety of pupils and students of the benefiting schools whose parents do not have the wherewithal to comfortably and safely bring them to and from school thereby having no choice but to trek daily in search of education,” Miss Oluwatosin explained.
This training and community development projects put together by the corps member have attracted lots of encomiums from the NYSC community, the Federal Road Safety Corps, academia and the Yobe community as a whole.
During the grand finale, those who excelled at the various training sessions in catering and skills acquisition were presented with prizes while the zebra crossing design in front of school premises were commissioned by the NYSC and the state Ministry of Education officials.
Miss Oluwatosin on her part expressed joy for excelling in Yobe State despite the security challenges bedevilling the state.
Her exemplary performance is worthy of emulation by all Youth Corps Members in the strife for oneness and development of Nigeria.
