The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has praised Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, for increasing corps members’ monthly allowances to a minimum of N20,000. NYSC’s Director-General, Olakunle Nafiu, gave the commendation when he visited the governor recently.

The Brigadier General also hailed the governor for the peace and security enjoyed by corps members in the state. He said: “The NYSC does not deploy corps members to areas that are not secure. “The safety of life and property is very dear to us.

Parents are always reassured that we do not deploy these young, vibrant Nigerian youths, who are the hope of this great nation, to places where they are not sure of the safety of their lives and property.”

Before Mbah’s administration, corps members earned a N1,000 monthly allowance, but he approved a minimum allowance of N80,000 for medical doctors, N50,000 for pharmacists, and N40,000 for other healthcare professionals.

He also approved a N20,000 minimum for others. Mbah pledged the continued support of his administration for the NYSC and corps members serving in the state. While recalling the place of Enugu in the Corps’ history, including the Corps’ first orientation camp, which was established in Awgu in 1973, the governor said his administration had taken steps towards the infrastructural revamp of the NYSC camp.

He said: “Awgu is also quite symbolic for us too as a people because, if you recall, that was actually a centre where we talked about the concept of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction – 3 Rs – immediately after the civil war. “So, for us, in trying to rehabilitate that location now, we want to bring back that historic importance.

We have also done quite a number of interventions for the NYSC, which you have pointed out. We are going to continue to support the service. “We see it as a duty on our part to continue to support both the welfare and the safety of the corps members. “We believe that the safety of the corps members at all times is paramount to us.”

Mbah added: “We derive benefit from the NYSC – the intervention we get from the corps members, who go to our schools to teach, our hospitals to work, and even contribute to our water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in our rural communities. “These contributions are not lost on us, and we do not take those services for granted.