By Shola Abayomi
The new Director General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim today (Friday) assumes duty as the 18th Chief Executive of the scheme.
In a colorful ceremony to herald his tenure, the new DG notes the tremendous improvements the outgone DG, Major General Suleiman Zakari Kazaure, has brought to bear on the scheme and promised to build on it with a deliberate focus on the welfare of staff and corps members as well as their security.
The new DG, who said his vision for the almost half a century old scheme would revolves around “the sustenance of effective utilization of the potentials of Corps Members and pursue a technologically driven organization” also pledge to strengthen the existing partnerships with major stakeholders.
“I want to urge the staff to be committed to work, shun malpractices and corruption while teamwork and fairness to all will be my watchword”, IIbrahim said.
Meanwhile, the immediate past Director-General, Major General Sulaiman Zakari Kazaure had, in his address before the formal handover, thanked God for a successful tenure as NYSC DG. He also commended the management and the entire staff of the Scheme for the support and cooperation accorded him during his three years and twenty-three days in office; requesting that the same level of cooperation be extended to his successor.
The new NYSC DG is resuming duty in an organization he is quite familiar with having served as Military Assistant to a former Director General of the Scheme, Major General Samson Dule between 1996 and 1999.
It would be racalled that the Nigerian army first announced the appointment of Brigadier General Shuibu Ibrahim on the 26th of April alongside other army internal postings made public by Acting Army Spokesman, Sagir Musa.
The appointment of Brigadier Ibrahim, who until his new role as DG NYSC was at the Nigerian Army University, Biu, was earlier critised on the basis that only the President and not the army had the right to appoint a Director General for the scheme. However, a Senate investigation, which confirmed that the appointment followed due process, has since laid to rest the initial controversies concerning the appointment.