[Mhiz Rebecca]

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)
Directorate Headquarters, Abuja, has slashed the
number of prospective Corp members for the next
phase of mobilization.
The disclosure was made in a leaked internal
memo dated 4th October, 2016 and sent to all
heads of departments of the Nnamdi Azikiwe
University.
The memo signed by Mrs Ifeoma Egboka, office of
the Dean of Students Affairs, said NYSC explained
that the slash was as a result of “tight budgetary
allocation of the Scheme”.
It therefore asked the HODs to “work out the
percentage of the number 894 (total) for each
department”, as against the initial 2,314.
The development may not be unconnected with the
economic recession.
Last month, media and publicity director, NYSC,
confirmed that the organisation was in need of
funds.
Aderibigbe said that the N10, 500, as budgeted by
the government for corp members’ kits, was no
longer enough.
“This year for instance, since the Federal
Government does not want a situation where
youths who are done with tertiary education hang
out longer than necessary before having their
chance to serve, we were given 260, 000 corps
members to mobilise,” she told The Guardian.
“So far, we are left with about 70, 000. Once the
present set leaves in October or thereabouts, this
outstanding will be taken care of for the year. This
is not a hopeless situation as people are made to
believe.
“It should be noted that once the federal
government gives us the figure to mobilise for a
particular year, they back it up with funds to take
care of that number.
“We are in need of a lot of funds to ease our
operations, but we will continue to cry to the
government until the situation improves.”
Recall that in May, the 2016 Batch A Stream 2 was
nearly stalled due to lack of funds.
Brig.-Gen. Sulyman Kazaure, NYSC Director-
General, laid the complaint when he appeared at a
Senate Committee hearing.