Federal Government will continue to invest in youth says Youth Minister.

[FMINigeria]

                        In view of the Federal Government's extant policy of scholarship awards to graduates with first class degrees to study in universities abroad, the Minister of Youth Development, Inuwa Abdul-kadir, has reiterated the renewed commitment of the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to upscale its investment in the youth sector because it holds great potential for the country's future development.

Abdul-kadir disclosed this when members of the standing committee of 2010 NYSC Presidential Award Winners paid him a courtesy call in his Office in Abuja. While commending them for their appreciation of the good gesture of the Federal Government, the Minister stated that the awardees must consider themselves special because they constitute the selected few who were given employment in the civil service and also had the opportunity to travel abroad for higher degrees under Federal Government scholarship.

He therefore urged them to reciprocate Government's gesture by ensuring that they contribute their quota to nation building.  He charged them to be good ambassadors of the NYSC platform through which they entered into the civil service. The Minister likewise charged them to continue to imbibe the virtues of discipline, patriotism, diligence as role models for other youths.

In the same vein, the Minister used the occasion to praise the founding fathers of the scheme noting that contrary to cynicism in some quarters, the NYSC had delivered on its mandate.

Inuwa Abdul-kadir averred that there is no way anyone can easily dismiss the achievement of the NYSC because it has over the years helped to create bridge over perceived ethnic divides in our country, that multi-ethnic and multi-lingual.

He advised critics to assess the scheme in an objective manner, pointing out that at the time the scheme was created in 1973, the socio-political environment had made it imperative for Nigeria to find a mechanism to pursue integration of the different ethnic groups. He reasoned that young people were indeed the veritable instrument to drive such initiative. He thus commended the vision of successive governments which had upheld these ideals.

Speaking earlier, Mr. Bakare Waheed who spoke on behalf of the group thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for his visionary and dynamic leadership style adding that the awardees and indeed Nigerians would forever be grateful for his national transformation programme.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria