President Muhammadu Buhari has saluted former Head of State, retired Gen. Yakubu Gowon, for the wisdom of setting up the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in 1973.
In a statement by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, on Friday in Abuja, Buhari said the scheme had truly achieved the goal of national integration.
The president said this was by providing opportunities for cross-cultural interactions and establishing formidable bridges for improved understanding.
Buhari congratulated the former Head of State, and all the former and incumbent Directors-General of the Corps, for inspiring and sustaining a 50-year legacy that had strengthened a web of solidarity and bolstered loyalty to the nation.
He said the scheme had also broadened the horizon of citizens, promoted civic responsiveness, created a better understanding of various individual and ethnic identities, their diversities and underscored the bottom-line of the common values of fairness, justice, peace and unity.
He said the scheme had also helped in resettling of people of various tribes in different parts of the country, exploration of entrepreneurship and business opportunities in places, and enabling a new culture of oneness, brotherliness and neighborliness.
Buhari affirmed that the scheme must be sustained, with a constant reminder of the history, structure and purpose that should not be abused, trivialised or undermined for any reason.
