By Ignatius Okorocha
The Senate Committee on Sports and Youth Development has sought for the increase of the daily feeding allowance of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from its current N600 per person to N1,000.
The Committee Chairman, Senator Obinna Ogba (PDP, Ebonyi) made the appeal on Tuesday while presenting his panel report on 2022 budget to the Appropriations Committee.
The Senate Committee on Interior had last month proposed for an increase in the daily feeding allowance of the Nigerian Correctional Service’s inmates from N450 per person to minimum of N1,000 per day.
Fielding questions from journalists after presenting his committee’s budget report to the Appropriations committee, Senator Ogba said it was apalling that the prisoners’ ration was going to be higher than the NYSC members, who are serving the nation.
He said, “It’s appalling that prisoners who have committed crimes are going to enjoy more than the youth corps members who are serving the country”.
“The prisoners should not be taking more than the youth corps members, because the feeding allowance for corpers is N600 per person a day while that of a prisoner is to be put at N1000 per day”
“You and I will agree that this is not the right thing. I’m only appealing to the executive and the legislature to do something about the youth corps members by increasing their daily feeding allowance from 600 to N1000 and the quality of their uniform.”
The lawmaker also lamented that the budgetary allocation to the ministry of Youths and Sports which is put at N5 billion for capital expenditure in the 2022 budget was grossly inadequate.
“Something needs to be done, because the budget cannot take both the ministry and the youths anywhere,” he said.
Senator Smart Adeyemi (APC, Kogi) also said increasing the feeding cost of NYSC members has become necessary for them to be patriotic.
“If the corps members are not well fed, it will be difficult for them to be patriotic,” he said.
