…Ambode promises permanent site in 2018

By Abigail Erhigakpor

AS corps members posted to the Lagos State, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp groan over poor condition of the temporary camp, Lagos State governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has said that locating them to their permanent camp was not in the 2017 budget.

Apparently, if you get to the Ipaja temporary camp, every place is tidy due to the level of maintenance by NYSC officials. However, if you get to the hostels, you will discover the level of decay in the buildings. A peep by Vanguard into the hostels suggests that the leaking roofs, spoilt ceilings and walls drenched by rain are enough reasons to urgently locate corps members to permanent site.

NYSC Members

However, Ambode on Friday said: “I can assure you that at the appropriate time, hopefully, by next year, it will be captured in the state’s budget. Ambode who spoke through the state Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr Seye Badejo during the swearing-in of the 2017 Batch ‘A’ Stream 2 corps members in Lagos said the NYSC camp in Lagos is receiving an attention.

He said: “For this year, the permanent orientation camp is not in our budget. We have to get an appropriation law to make such a provision. Next year, hopefully, it shall be in our budget. That is not to say that we don’t hold the NYSC in high esteem, we do. This could be seen in the number of corps members deployed to our state which we receive.

We receive the highest corps members at every stream.” Meanwhile, the Lagos State Coordinator of NYSC, Prince Mohammed Momoh while addressing corps members said that necessary amenities such as power and water had been made available in the temporary orientation camp.

He disclosed that the Bank of Industry (BOI) would open a desk during the orientation to enlighten corps members on various self-reliant programmes. His words: “The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund is also coming to sensitize the corps member on the processes and proceedings of getting empowerment through the fund.” For the 2017 Batch ‘A’ Stream 2 corps member, he said that a total of 2,722 corps members, comprising of 757 males and 1,965 females, registered for the orientation.