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DG tasks NYSC Officials on Creativity, Mentorship
By Joel Ajayi
NYSC Officials have been urged to be creative, avoid all forms of malpractice and demonstrate the highest degree of responsibility in the discharge of their duties.
The Director General of NYSC, Brigadier General Muhammad Kaku Fadah stated this on Wednesday in his address at the opening ceremony of the Corps Welfare and Health Services Schedule Officers’ Workshop held in Abuja.
Participants for the workshop were drawn from the thirty-six State Secretariats, Area Offices and the FCT.
Speaking on the theme; “Capacity Building to Enhance Security and General Welfare of Corps Members”, Fadah said the workshop is aimed at equipping participants with techniques for effective handling of Corps Health, General safety and other welfare matters.
He stated further that it would enhance their ability to surmount emerging challenges in Corps administration.
He said the workshop also underscores the commitment of management to the implementation of one of the focal points of his administration’s policy thrust on the improvement of the security and general welfare of Corps Members.
“While assuring you of Management’s support for the successful discharge of your duties, l urge you to always be creative, shun all forms of malpractice and demonstrate the highest degree of responsibility as you are expected to serve as role models for the Corps Members, and show empathy to them, especially when they are in need of care.
While acknowledging our ability to keep pace with the current trends in Corps discipline and reward, we must not not lose sight of the fact that all our actions are subjected to public scrutiny “, the DG said.
He implored the Schedule officers to use the workshop to gain more knowledge on the processes and procedures for handling disciplinary cases as well as reward through Honours Award at the Local Government, State and National levels.
The Director General enjoined the officers to brace up for the tasks ahead adding that, “I wish to remind you to redouble your efforts in our bid to take the Scheme to more enviable heights as the nation will witness the Golden Jubilee of the Scheme, the general elections and the conduct of the National Population and Housing Census.
The Independent National Electoral Commission and the National Population Commission are expected to enlist Corps Members as adhoc personnel for these programmes.
I must stress that we cannot afford to record any failure at the same time Nigerians are expected to roll out the drums in celebration of our five decades of unequalled contributions to nation building.
It will be a moment when your guidance, coordination and supervisory capabilities as field officers will be put to test”, Fadah added.
The Director, Corps Welfare and Health Services Department, Alhaji Ladan Baba in his remark said the department considered it necessary to develop the capacities of the Schedule Officers with a view to improving the quality of documentation , handling and presentation of cases concerning Corps Members’ safety, wellbeing and entitlements.
He added that the Schedule Officers would be adequately equipped with the necessary skills in meeting emerging challenges and also engineer self confidence in performing their duties.
In their separate goodwill messages, the Managing Director/CEO of Capital Express Assurance Ltd, Bola Odukale and Misari Ibiam, Deputy General Manager, Formal Sector from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) urged for sustained partnership with the NYSC for the benefit of all Corps Members.
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ELECTING A POPE: THE BURDEN OF MAKING CHOICES
By Olubunmi Mayaki
“Habemus papam!” which in the English Language means, “We have a Pope.” was pronounced by Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a French Catholic prelate, His Eminence, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti from the iconic loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican City on Thursday 8 May 2025 after white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Those Latin words proclaimed to a tensed global audience the result of the election of a new Supreme Pontiff after the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) on 21 April 2025 at the age of 88 years.
The Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Robert Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) emerged as primus inter pares (first among equals) from the cardinals after undergoing detailed election rituals, which have been the process of selecting the head of the 2000-year-old Catholic Church for centuries.
A papal conclave, the process by which a new Pope is selected, was held consisting of one hundred and thirty-three (133) College of Cardinals, drawn from different parts of the world converged at St. Peter’s Basilica for a public mass before heading to the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes to elect the 267th Pope. During the mass, part of the choir renditions reminded voters to remember their last day when they would stand before God in judgment to render their stewardship on earth, which is to prevent them from rigging the voting process. At the behest of the senior cardinal deacon, voting formalities were read to the electors, which included- oath-taking- “I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one whom I believe should be elected according to God”. Other processes are banning phones, jamming calls, forbidding speaking or contacting any of the candidates, voting rounds, spiritual pauses etc.
Looking at the voting process, one should be curious about how an election to pick a leader for a religious body could be so systematic and attract such global attention. It is a sharp contrast to elections where political leaders are chosen. Even in the so-called advanced democracies, we have seen electoral flaws and a dearth of political leaders. States are finding it difficult to pick genuine statesmen, giving rise to hegemonic leaders. These political imperia ums are emerging and stoking crises in their domain. Fallouts of elections are no longer favourable due to unpopular candidates forced on citizens.
Africa, as a case study, shows that no matter the rules put in place by the continent’s leaders, our election processes have been fraught with rigging, corruption and waste. In most cases, the leaders who set the rules are the violators of the same process. Governments conspire with electoral bodies to truncate election processes at will. Such political brigandage has destroyed the progress of the continent.
Closing this view, I hope that African leaders will take a cue from the Catholic Church’s election process to reinvigorate and rejig the continent’s faltering political process for the good of its people. Better still; political scholars from the continent can study the Catholic model. The common features of elections in most parts of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, are riddled with vote rigging, violence, human rights abuse, repression, barbarism, crises, untold hardship, and sometimes, outright war. This is the bane of Africa’s development.
The burden of making good political choices should ordinarily rest on citizens. However, politicians have hijacked this process for selfish reasons. It has given birth to bad leaders. If we fail to get it right, what we see is what we get. That is the story of the world politics!
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