The Federal Government of Nigeria has applauded members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for their tremendous help and selflessness rendered across the country.
It specially lauded the corps members for their notable assignments, in the country’s fight against HIV/AIDS, and especially during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The statement was made by the Coordinating Minister of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, on Wednesday when she led some staff of the Ministry on an advocacy visit to the NYSC National Directorate Headquarters in Maitama, Abuja.
Represented by the Acting Head of Health Promotion Division in the Federal Ministry of Health, Ezioma Madu, Pete said Federal Government is making concerted efforts to involve corps members in the promotion of community health across the nooks and crannies of the country.
It said corps members are agents of social change, whose presence in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the country with enviable track records of previous participation in several national assignments cannot be underestimated.
The minister further said that there was the need to promote total wellbeing of Nigerians with community health, through awareness creation by using the Corps Members.
“We have the National Health Promotion Forum which involves NGOs, MDAs, Faith-Based Organisations, donor agencies, CSOs, traditional leaders among others, whereby there was a consensus that there is the need to involve corps members in the health promotion activities.
“We want to leverage on NYSC’s experience at the systematic level,” Pete said.
She requested that health promotion should be part of their regular CDS group as it would be enable them create awareness on health issues and improve the lifestyle of Nigerians especially at the grassroots.
Responding to the statement, the Director General of NYSC, Brigadier General YD Ahmed, said the scheme would do everything possible to ensure the well-being of all Nigerians.
He said a technical committee would be constituted to work out modalities on the request adding that the Scheme has over the years successfully participated in several national assignments.