Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday pledged the state government readiness to deepen the existing partnership between the
National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) and the state government especially in the
area of skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development as well as training
and empowerment for self-employment.
He said the state has a lot of skill acquisition
centres where the scheme could key into, noting that Corp members should also
understand that skill acquisition is imperative considering what is happening
today in the society.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Batch
‘B’ pre-orientation workshop with theme: ‘Reinvigorating the NYSC Orientation
Course for a Successful Service Years’, held at the Event Centre in Alausa, Sanwo-Olu,
who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Obafemi
Hamzat, recalled that when the state government was building the
Lekki/Ikoyi link bridge, the contractors were at that time seeking to employ 700 welders for the project
but couldn’t find any.
According to him, “In trying to build the suspended
bridge, the contractor in-charge said they needed 700 welders but they could
not find anyone, so they said they would go outside Nigeria to look for welders because they said certain
skills were needed, but we refused. So at our skill acquisition centre in Igando,
we decided to train the 700 welders who were part of those who built the
project.”
He disclosed that the state government delayed the
completion of the bridge by six months just to get the welders, saying:
“Interestingly, when the welders finished, they were employed by oil companies
such as Chevron and Shell, and their salaries are between N800,000 and N1million
a month. However, there are many more grounds to cover and break in the realisation
of a more developed and greater Nigeria through youth reorientation and
empowerment both in entrepreneurial and leadership skills that is needed in
Nigeria. Skills acquisition, if well done would be fantastic.”
Sanwo-Olu who declared the workshop opened,
expressed optimism that it would serve to harmonise relations between the state
government and NYSC camp officials as well as enhance the benefits of the
scheme as the largest youth mobilisation strategy in Africa, as he commended
the Director General of NYSC, staff and Corps members for their immense contributions
towards the success of the 2019 general election.
The Director General of NYSC, Brigadier General
Shuaibu Ibrahim, said the workshop is designed for NYSC managers and its
collaborating partners to review previous orientation courses with a view to
tackling identified challenges and mapping out new strategies for successful
conduct of the forthcoming one.
No comments:
Post a Comment