FORMER Military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), who established the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, in 1973 and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have opposed calls for scrapping of the NYSC because of incessant killing of corps members especially in northern parts of the country during recurring ethno-religious and political crises.
Noting that the scheme was still vital for the political and socio-economic development of the country, the leaders have bemoaned the repeated killings of corps members and urged the government to halt the killings.
Gowon, who recalled why he established the NYSC, lamented that 41 years after the Civil War some Nigerians still hated one another and indulged in killing one another via ethno-religious and political violence.
He said: “That all this show of hatred still happens years after the Civil War is highly regrettable. The solution to it is that, Nigerians have to be patriotic and faithful to their country. Instead of using tribe, politics or religion as tool for violence, they should see it the other way by using it to buttress their loyalty and patriotism to their country, Nigeria.
“We’ve got to learn, especially through the two religions that we have, how to be able to live together and do things together in peace loving each other. That I think has worked out really in the West where they have a lot of religious differences and yet, there doesn’t seem to be a serious issue. They don’t go on fighting each other but they live side by side respecting each other, marrying each other, etcetera.
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