By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
Mrs Bamai gave this advice while interacting with journalists after a Special Thanksgiving Service that was held at Evangelical Church Winning All, (ECWA) in Abakaliki to celebrate the NYSC 50th anniversary in Ebonyi State.
The NYSC Coordinator commended the efforts of the Corp members, especially for initiating personal community development services in their host communities and however urged them to be more enthusiastic in driving national development; believing that the scheme would always do better.
“We must be more committed and encourage ourselves, because our achievements so far are a kind of encouragement for us, during the activities to mark the 50th anniversary. We had stakeholders coming to tell us how much we impacted them.
“The NYSC will always do better, if you are being commended you know that you are on the right track and you will be encouraged to do more," Bamai said.
“We are celebrating the 50th year of NYSC not because we do it on our own but because we know that God has helped the NYSC.
"It's not only because we are 50 years but for the achievements so far. God has given us wisdom and knowledge to overcome challenges and the NYSC has continued to be relevant and it will continue to be relevant after 50 years," the Coordinator stated.
In a swift interaction, the Resident Pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All, (ECWA), in Abakaliki Capital City, Reverend Emmanuel Okafor recommended that the safety and respect for serving Corps members should be the priority of their host communities while rendering selfless services for the peace, unity and progress of the country.
He described it as an unfortunate act for anyone to attack a serving Corps member and encouraged the general public to support them as well as show respect for what Nigeria exemplifies in promoting national integration and development.
“NYSC members should be respected, they should be accepted because they are doing vital work in our society.
“The purpose of establishing the scheme is to unify the country after the civil war.
“In times of crises, we should not see them as targets to hunt for, it’s a terrible thing to hurt a Corps member who is serving the nation.
“My charge to the host communities is to respect Corps members at all times because of what they stand for," the Resident Pastor said.
He also recommended that Corps members should be given the requisite assistance to enable them to render selfless service that would be of great benefit to their host communities.
He called on the youths to be disciplined and uphold the good virtues they acquired from the NYSC and their various institutions to ascend leadership positions in the future.
“We say that the future belongs to the youths, if we are not mentally, spiritually, and physically equipped to handle the social aspects, we will be disappointed by our parents and the institutions that trained us.
“The youths should maintain solid virtues so that we can remember to take up leadership from those that are guiding us today, we should be focused, be godly and study hard and imbibe godly virtues to succeed tomorrow," Reverend Okafor added.
