Acting President urges NYSC members to embrace 'Change Begins with Me' mantra

The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has advised NYSC members to identify with the ‘Change Begins with Me’ mantra of the current administration meant to restore national values.

Osinbajo gave the advice on Thursday in Owerri in a message read by Mr Obinna Aharanwa, the Principal Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Imo, at the swearing in of the 2017 Batch ‘A’ corps members posted to the state.

Aharanwa represented Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo at the programme.

Osinbajo expressed regret that degeneration of moral values and good behaviour had become part of life of some Nigerians which had paved way for corruption and indiscipline.

He said it was as a result of this that the presidency set the ball rolling to cleanse the rot through the ‘Change Begins with Me’ mantra.

The acting president said that the NYSC had become a veritable vehicle for national development, national unity and oneness among Nigerians which had strengthened the nation’s corporate existence.

He congratulated the corps members on the successful completion of their academic programmes in their various institutions of learning which qualified them to participate in the programme.

Osinbajo enjoined both public and private institutions not to reject corps members posted to them for their primary assignments.

James Olugbodi, the Coordinator of NYSC in Imo, said that 1,615 corps members comprising 735 male and 850 female were registered in the state for the programme.

He commended Gov. Rochas Okorocha for his invaluable support to the NYSC scheme in the state, particularly the construction of extra hostels in the permanent orientation camp at Eziama Obaire, in Nkwerre council area of the state.

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Olugbodi said that although the state government had made concerted efforts to drill a borehole in the orientation camp, there was an urgent need to intensify action in this regard and to finish the project on time.

He said that the training at the camp would include lectures, para-military drills, Man ‘O’ War exercises, language studies, games, cooking, environmental sanitation, skill and entrepreneurial development, among others.

Olugbodi charged the corps members on discipline, orderliness, perseverance, service, humility and respect for constituted authorities.