Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, Alabo Gideon Ekeuwei,
has said the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, is the most vibrant
and best youth programme in Africa in the last fifty years.

Alabo Ekeuwei, said despite the challenges faced in the last fifty
years, the NYSC programme has outlived every other youth scheme
initiated in Nigeria and the continent of Africa.
The SSG, who is also the Chairman, NYSC State Governing Board,
described the scheme as a key factor for national development and
integration.

Alabo Ekeuwei stated this during the fifty years anniversary lecture at
the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Secretariat, Yenagoa, noting
that the scheme has become an indispensable factor in the areas of
education, healthcare, agriculture and infrastructure as Corps
members carry out their primary assignments.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary-General Services, Mr.
Anthony Ichobo, the SSG congratulated the NYSC on its fiftieth
anniversary, noting that he is looking forward to the next fifty years of
the scheme as the champion of national unity, cultural integration, and
religious tolerance.

In a welcome remark, the State Coordinator, Mrs Charity Okpalifo, on
behalf of the Director General, Brigadier General Yusha'u Ahmed,
said the theme: NYSC @ 50: Five Decades of Fostering National
Unity and Development, which also doubles as the topic for the
lecture, was relevant because of the immense contribution to the
nation.

The guest lecturer, Dr Anderson Nikade, a former staff of the service,
and lecturer with the Niger Delta University, Amassoma, commended
the management of the scheme for consistently initiating policies to
enhance the attainment of its core objectives of promoting self-
reliance, patriotism, brotherhood and a shared sense of corporate
existence among Nigerians.