Brig.-Gen. Nnamdi Okore-Affia, the Director-General,
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has directed employers of corps
members to provide accommodation for them or risk being declared
``unfriendly to the scheme''.
The director-general issued the warning on Monday in Abuja, stressing
that employers should ensure that corps members serving with them were
well taken care of.
According to him, ``the responsibility of providing accommodation for
corps members is that of employers and when they fail to do so, we will
consider them unfriendly.''
Okore-Affia explained that his directive resulted from the difficulty
experienced by corps members, especially those in the Federal Capital
Territory, in obtaining accommodation.
Most organisations, both private and government establishments, have
no provision for accommodation for corps members but keep requesting for
their service.
However, the NYSC letter of posting clearly states that employers
requesting for corps member must provide them with accommodation.
The letter reads: ``Employers of corps members are expected to
provide accommodation, at least a room, to a corps member with a bed,
mattress, pillows, table and a chair.''
Mr Felix Tunde, a corps member serving with a federal parastatal
establishment in the FCT, said his employers asked him if he had
accommodation before they could accept him as they had no accommodation
for him.
Also, Miss Amina Abubakar, a batch C corps member, said that her
employers informed her that they could not pay her accommodation cost
nor give her a place as requested by the scheme.
``I was rejected because of accommodation problem,'' said Abubakar, who resides in the outskirts of Abuja.
She said that at the end of the day she got little or nothing in a
month as all her earnings, both the NYSC allowance and the stipend, were
spent on transportation.
``I stay in the outskirts of Abuja and my allowance from the NYSC in
addition to what they give me from my primary place of assignment end up
being spent on transportation every month and I still have to pay for
accommodation.''
At the NYSC Orientation Camp at Kubwa, most of the corps members who
have no relations in the FCT seek temporary accommodation there.
Source
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