The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has announced the suspension of the on-going orientation course for 2020 Batch ‘A’ Stream 1 Corps members.
In a statement released in the early hours of Wednesday, the NYSC attributed the action to COVID-19 pandemic which lead to the suspension of large gatherings.
“Therefore, the Corps Members shall be posted to commence their primary assignments forthwith, while they shall be invited back to orientation camps when the situation improves, just like it happened a few years ago when the Nation was confronted by the Ebola Virus threat,” the statement partly read.
The orientation service was supposed to last for three weeks, March 10 to 30, and then corps members are posted to various places of primary assignment. According to reports, many corps members across the country were informed of the action taken by the management of the NYSC in the midnight.
While some Nigerians welcome this development, others frown at it saying the orientation was a major part of the one-year service.
The West African Pilot News gathered from a reliable source at the orientation camp in Abuja that things got chaotic when the announcement was made during the morning parade.
“It is chaotic here. They should have given us between two to three days notice so that people would have time to prepare. Look at the people at Mami market, many of them had prepared food to sell. They would definitely lose money,” the source said.
“My platoon did some activities yesterday and many people have khaki soaked to be washed and camp officials are saying that we should leave today and that no one would be allowed to leave wearing mufti. Some have not fully registered; they have not submitted their files. We were told that our PPA posting would be sent to our dashboard.”
Meanwhile on social media platforms, there are divergent views:
“The best of #NYSC is the three weeks in camp. It’s crazy that these batch of corpers will never have the privilege of enjoying one of the best camping experiences in service to the nation. My three weeks in camp remains one of the finest moments of my #NYSC year. #COVID19,” Royalty @royaltyuso
“NYSC camp can’t be fun to everyone. Some people conveniently have fun despite the rigorous exercises while some can’t even stop saying the #nysc camp is the interesting part. If camp has to be suspended to save people, then it’s a smart decision,” Tife @Tife_fabunmi wrote.
The NYSC also said that no corps member or camp official had contracted the virus.
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