Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, on Thursday, said the state government supported the posting of 80 per cent of National Youth service Corps (NYSC) members to rural areas. El-Rufai said when the state NYSC Coordinator, Isa Wana paid him a courtesy visit in his office, that any influential person who requested for redeployment of corp members posted to rural areas of the state should do so through his office.

“The decision of the NYSC to commence posting of 80 per cent corps members to rural area is the best option.

“I will notify traditional leaders and the principals of schools to prioritize accommodation for corps members.

“We want our young people to be exposed to real Nigeria, in the rural area they can understand the future challenges and enable them to understand the plight of the poorest and the most vulnerable.”

The governor assured the coordinator that the state government will be putting more structures in the NYSC orientation camp.

Earlier, the state NYSC Coordinator said 80 per cent of corps member will be deployed to rural areas beginning from the next batch of corps members.

He, however, said the deployment would not include local government areas with security challenges.

“When I assumed office, we discovered that 80 per cent of Corps members are being concentrated in the urban areas; that is unacceptable.

“We are aware that the rural areas lack teachers, we intend to support the state policy and we emphasise that by next posting we are going to post 80 per cent to the rural areas and the only way we could do that is by your assistance.

“If we post them outside the urban areas you see a lot of influence from unknown quarters for them to be redeployed back to urban centres while the corps members are grossly underutilised in the urban centres.

“Deploying them to rural schools and other institutions would be of benefits to the rural dwellers,” Wana said.

The coordinator, however, called on the state government to give priority to the accommodation of the corps members before the posting policy commences.

He appreciated the governor for rebuilding male hostels at the permanent orientation camp and renovation of the camp multipurpose hall which were dilapidated for years.

He further appreciated the state government for the ongoing construction of a 500-bed capacity male hostel at the camp.

Wami appealed to the government to do the same for the female corps members. (Daily Trust)

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