NYSC was strongly opposed when we first introduced it, but its now a tool for fostering national unity and youth empowerment – GOWON

Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - Former head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has revealed that Nigerian students resisted the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, when it was first introduced.

Gowon stated this when the newly appointed Director General, Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu paid him a courtesy visit at his residence in Asokoro, Abuja.

He acknowledged the multi-dimensional contributions of Corps members to national development in the over 50 years of the Scheme’s existence.

He further praised the deployment policy of NYSC, which exposes Corps Members to the various peoples and cultures of Nigeria, by posting them to States and geographical locations other than their own.

He said, “The NYSC was greeted with strong opposition from Nigerian students across the country at inception.”

He said, however, that the Scheme had not only overcome the initial misgivings but had grown to become a nationally recognised and accepted tool for fostering national unity, integration, development, job creation, and youth empowerment in Nigeria.

The NYSC was established by the Gowon administration as part of the post-war programmes designed to reconcile, reconstruct, and rehabilitate Nigeria after a bitter 30-month-long civil war ravaged the country.