A 13-man National Selection Committee has been inaugurated and given four days to submit names of deserving corps members for the 2017 President’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Honours Award.

File: NYSC members

Inaugurating the committee in Abuja on Monday, the NYSC Director-General, Maj.-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, charged them to approach the process dispassionately and improve on existing standards.

Kazaure said that the management of the scheme expects the committee to emerge with candidates who by every standard would be acceptable to all.
He said that he was optimistic the committee would deliver on the mandate given to it.

“As the highest body saddled with the evaluation of the performance and selection of corps members for the award, this committee is expected to improve on the standards set already.

“As you embark on this round of selection process, I implore you to approach the task dispassionately. This is because management expects the emergence of candidates who by every standard will be acceptable to all.

“As you may be aware, the President’s NYSC honours award was instituted in 1974 as a way of encouraging corps members to contribute to the overall national development by embarking on community development projects.

“The award is also to serve as motivation for hard work and reward for excellence among corps members. Since its commencement, the award has had numerous recipients.

“Community development service remains one of the major areas where the scheme has recorded remarkable success.

“The good image of the scheme is soaring partly due to corps members activities and involvement in the areas of infrastructure, education, healthcare delivery and agriculture in many rural communities across the country,” Kazaure said.

Mr Abdulrasheed Sanusi, the NYSC Director, Corps Welfare and Inspectorate, said that the selection process was in three stratas; namely local government, state and national selection committees.

Sanusi assured that in order to ensure a smooth and hitch-free national selection exercise, the department has conducted due diligence and verified claims from state secretariats to forestall novelty and frivolities.

According to the director, on the spot assessment of the projects were carried out and briefs have been prepared on each corps member to support the citations forwarded by the state secretariates.

“It is therefore, the duty of the national selection committee to meticulously assess the nominees and select diamonds from other pearls using the set criteria.

“The committee has been given four days to present their final selection of corps members to be given the awards. The preliminary work is almost done and the selection committee is here to ensure that our final selection shows objectivity.

“We have put together certain criteria to ensure objectivity in the selection of award winners and very soon the award ceremony will be done.’’

Prof. Angela Miri, the Chairman of the Committee and Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Lokoja, assured that the committee would ensure transparency and objectivity in the process.

Miri said that the committee would work hard and sieve through all the names previously selected and submitted at the local, state and national levels and come up with truly deserving corps members to receive the honours award.

The vice chancellor listed some of the criteria given to the committee to use for selection to include corps members who have diligently carried out community development service, completed them and have been assessed.

Other criteria include corps members whose community development projects have directly and positively impacted the communities in which they have served and those who were committed during the orientation course.

Members of the committee include two NYSC retired directors, a representative from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), and the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.

The committee also comprises a representative from the National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army.

Council of Heads of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria, All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), as well as the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre (CLT) are also represented in the committee. (NAN)