By Peter Usman
Abuja (Nigeria)– National Youth Council of Nigeria, in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS have made a passionate appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to expeditiously assent to the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill transmitted to him in 2017.
The National Presidents of the groups, Murtala Mohammed Garba of NYCN and Aruna Kadiri of NANS, who made the appeal at a joint press conference in Abuja, said if the NPC Bill was assented to, it will go a long way to tackle youth unemployment in the country.
The groups which enumerated some of the mandates of the Corps, such as provision of employment for the youths, facilitate peace, community services, neighbourhood watch, national building among others, noted that if youths in the country were properly empowered and strategically positioned, they will be able to contribute their quota to national development.
According to them, “No doubt, NPC which is essentially a youth based organization, hold the vital key to tackle youth unemployment in Nigeria. Unemployment is a bad development that has consistently frustrated the nation’s youths from contributing their quota to national development and fulfillment of their God-given destinies”
“Other ancillary, but highly essential functions of the Corps are: to train Nigeria youths with good virtues, strong passion and commitment to the art of patriotism; to train and equip the youths with knowledge for peace education, conflict resolution, mediation, reconciliation and confidence building, to give distinct orientation to the youths and engage them in the provision of essential services”
The groups stated that the Nigerian Peace Corps is a voluntary Youth Organisation, which was duly affiliated to the National Youth Council of Nigeria and has been partnering with the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports alongside its education counterpart since 1998.
“Because of the important roles it has been playing in the development of Nigerian youths and in the promotion of peace, the Nigerian Peace Corps was granted a special consultative status by both the United Nations and African Union under their Economic and Social Affairs Council that hold global mandate on the youth issues”
The group asserted that the function of the NPC do not in any way overlap with that of other security agencies in the country, saying that their functions have been designed to complement the efforts of the existing agencies by increasing their efficiency through preventive and intelligent gathering measures.
The group leaders emphasized that if the NPC bill is assented and signed into law, it will definitely increase the expertise of the existing security agencies to focus on major issues.
