The House of Representatives Committee on Youth Development, on Thursday, held a public hearing on the National Youth Service Corps Trust Fund (Establishment) Bill and the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Trust Fund (Establishment) Bill, where stakeholders called for better welfare for young Nigerians.
Members of the House, Messrs Samuel Akinfolarin and Farah Dagogo, sponsored the bills, respectively.
The Director-General of the NYSC, Maj.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, in his presentation, said the Trust Fund, when established, would engage and empower corps members at the end of the service by making them self-reliant.
Ibrahim noted that NYSC members are willing to put in their best once supported, urging Nigerians to support the bill.
A former Governor of Edo State, Oserheimen Osunbor, also said, “This bill is commendable and I support its passage by the National Assembly. Nevertheless, I urge this committee to pay particular attention to the sourcing and utilisation of funds, part of which I have addressed.
“This is to avoid the abuses that have been associated in recent times with trust funds by officials who see them as slush funds to feed their avarice. This calls for caution in order that the good intention behind this bill is not defeated.”
Chairman of the House Committee on Youth Development, Yemi Adaramodu, said the bill is going to engage youths to bring development. He also called for training and retraining of NYSC staff members as well as skill acquisitions for corps members.
While declaring the hearing open, Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, urged the committee to ensure that their recommendations consider all the prevailing circumstances and reflect the well-thought-out contemplation of objective realities and alternatives.
Gbajabiamila, who was represented by the Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, while noting that the objective of both bills was laudable, said the lawmakers would be circumspect in consideration of proposals that impose a permanent obligation on limited public funds, given that the nation is borrowing heavily to meet the basic obligations of government.
He said, “Both bills, in their own way, seek to create opportunities for economic and social advancement for young people by offering skills acquisition opportunities and providing access to capital to actualise entrepreneurial ambitions. These are both laudable objectives.
“The NYSC Trust Fund Bill recognises that the NYSC is a significant cost centre for the Federal Government of Nigeria. And at a time of competing priorities dwindling resources, the corps may not be sustainable in its present form.
“The bill is an attempt to begin an essential and long-overdue conversation about the future of the National Youth Service Corps and the options for reforming the corps so that in whatever form it continues to exist, it serves the best interests of our beloved country.
“I believe, and I have expressed this belief in different fora, that the most pressing public policy question of our time is how to ensure the economic, political and social future of the teeming number of young people in the country.”
The Speaker added, “How do we build an economy that provides enough well-paying jobs and ensure that young people are adequately represented in the arena where political decisions are made? As legislators, we must continue to strive to find answers to these questions. But we must also be innovative in the proposals we make and the alternatives we consider for reform.
“Particularly, we must be circumspect in our consideration of proposals that impose a permanent obligation on limited public funds when we are borrowing heavily to meet the basic obligations of the government.”
Dagogo, in his presentation, explained that the idea of the bill was conceived in recognition of the enormous potentials of the teeming Nigerian youths, which constitute over 55 per cent of the country’s population, and many of whose budding talent has not been effectively harnessed for the socio-economic growth and development of the country.
The sponsor also pointed out that while the youths of Nigeria have the capacity to effectively and significantly contribute to the nation’s development, constraining factors that are largely economic in nature, have contributed to the stifling of these positive potentials from “this significant group of the populace.”
The lawmaker noted that such challenges might not be unconnected to the negative vices by some of the youths to plug these economic gaps, thus bringing about some level of instability in the polity and system of the country.
Dagogo said, “What went wrong with Nigerian youths and how can we reverse the trend to galvanise them to become more functional and pivotal of entrepreneurial change? Here lies the essence of this bill.
“This bill is monumental, colossal, titanic and a roadmap for safeguarding the future of Nigerian youths. When passed, it would provide the necessary panacea on how to re-invent the economy and jettison poverty with youths taking the lead as tigers of revolution.”
Chairman of the committee, Yemi Adaramodu, lauded the sponsor of the bill. He dismissed claims that the youths have been catered for in various youth programme, pointing out that the so-called ‘intervention programme’ was not backed by law and as such, difficult to monitor.
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