The Federal Government has promised to revitalise the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to empower the nation’s youths.
It said the Ministry of Communication and the Ministry of Blue Economy were working hard to have engage youths in agriculture, technology, entertainment, and sports.
The Minister of State for Youth, Ayodele Olawande, announced this during the commemoration of this year’s International Students’ Day in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The minister said the current Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu was concerned about how to further create opportunities for youths to enable them excel in their various fields.
He said: “With the rate at which people are going out of school, the Ministry of Youth is trying to see how to revitalise and reform the NYSC so that majority of them will not go out for one year and have nothing to do.
“We want to make sure the NYSC will stand that if you leave after one year of national service, you can be engaged by NYSC itself to do something for you. A lot of skills and programmes are coming back.
“When you see what the Ministry of Communication and the Ministry of Blue Economy are doing now, we are going to have youths in agriculture, technology, entertainment, and sports. We are bringing all these together because we are going to need youths that work.”
Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu urged students in tertiary institutions not to view education as a mere pathway to job opportunities but as a tool for liberation that would impact society and personal growth.
He urged the students not to lose hope in the country but to focus on how to solve problems that would enable them to have a better future.
Represented by the Commissioner for Youths and Sport, Bamidele Ologun, the governor assured students that his administration would continue to support their dreams and bring them to reality.
In a lecture, titled: Embracing Failure: The Power of the First Attempt in Learning and Growing, the Vice Chancellor of Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology at Okitipupa, Ondo State, Prof. Temi Ologunorisa, who was represented by the Dean of Students’ Affairs, Dr. Daniel Adekeye, urged the youths not to despair in their quest to strive for the best.
“Nigerian youth, who are primarily students, must rise to the challenge of evolving a new Nigeria — a nation that depicts the lofty dreams of our past heroes.
“It is high time that Nigerian youth embraced their individual failures and our collective national failures by accepting responsibility and becoming alive to new ways of thinking, acting, and responding to national and global realities.”
