NYSC Trust Fund will curb insurgency, joblessness – HURIWA to House of Reps

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA has asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila-led legislative chamber to carry through with the passage of the bill to create the National Youth Service Corps Youths Trust Fund, adding that when passed, the bill would serve strategic national security interests.

HURIWA applauded the committee on youths and sports of the House of Representatives for pushing for the legislative mechanisms to be activated to ensure seamless passage of the proposed bill that will give teeth to the clarion call for the creation of the NYSC Youths Trust Fund.

HURIWA noted that the institutional funding agency under the auspices of the National Youth Service Corps will rapidly produce hundreds of thousands of skilled youthful manpower who will also be empowered economically to generate wealth and create employment opportunities.

The rights group recalled that the House of Representatives had recently begun the process of establishing a National Youth Service Corps Trust Fund to allow funding of the scheme from various sources.

The human rights advocacy group postulated that the National Youth Service Corps Trust Fund (Establishment) Bill 2021 is currently awaiting passage at the House on Thursday.

The proposed fund HURIWA averred is to “provide a sustainable source of funds for the NYSC, skill acquisition training and provision of start-up capital to corps members, train and retrain the personnel of the NYSC, develop camps and the NYSC formations and provide facilities therein.”

The Rights group maintained too that the NYSC Youths Trust Fund will also “improve the general welfare of corps members and personnel of the scheme and enhance their preparedness to effectively discharge their statutory duties of promoting national unity, integration, self-reliance and accelerated development of the national economy.”

This was contained in a statement signed by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of HURIWA who charged the national assembly to deliver the proposed law to enable President Muhammadu Buhari authorise the creation of the critical funding mechanism.

The group said it has perused the bill and found out that the proposed law will, therefore, provide a legal framework for management and control of the special intervention fund established under Section 3 of the Act.

HURIWA stated that the bill partly read, “The Trust Fund established under Section 3 of this Act covers all corps members, personnel of the NYSC, orientation camps, formations, facilities and for the overall improvement and efficiency in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities.

HURIWA said it is confident in the fact that the bill is to run concurrently with the NYSC scheme from the commencement of the bill.

The rights organisation also said it endorses the proposal for the Fund to be financed with a levy of one per cent of the net profit of companies and organised private sector operating a business in Nigeria

“On behalf of the organised civil society community in Nigeria, we applaud the Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila-led legislative chamber for immediately working on this bill to create the NYSC YOUTHS TRUST FUND which we believe will significantly reduce insurgency and Youth restiveness by over 50% because”, argues HURIWA.