The National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) has approached the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to help in replicating the Information and Communication Technology Centre it established at the Federal Capitial Territory Secretariat in other state secretariats in order to strengthen the ICT platform of the Corp.
NYSC director-general Brigadier General Shu’aibu Ibrahim who paid a visit to the NITDA corporate headquarters, Abuja, stated that he wants NITDA to consider other secretariats for such opportunity given to FCT secretariat.
According to him, NITDA and NYSC have a long standing relationship but he wants to strengthen the collaborations that exist between them.
He said strengthening the partnership would assist the Corp to overcome some of the menaces it is facing especially on checkmating the spread of fake news on social media.
Citing an example with the story of a JSS2 student alleged to have impregnated a Corp member, the NYSC DG described the abuse of social media as worrisome and appealed to NITDA to stem the tide.
“Something has to be done to checkmate the menace of social media to save us from various embarrassments. Things that have happened in the past are now being put forth on social media to look like recent events. People are using the platforms to defraud unsuspected member of the public. You can imagine people creating accounts to defraud Corp member that they can help them to be redeployed.
He called for the arrest of such people to serve as deterrents to others so as to reduce the menace.
In his response, NITDA director-general Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, assured that NITDA would look into the request and start the intervention this year.
He noted that the Agency has done a lot in building the capacity of Corp members serving in the Agency but “we can expand it to cover the FCT as a pilot project.
He stated that it is pertinent for the agencies of government to partner in helping to build skills of Corp members because “what most Corp members have is the knowledge and we need to help them in transforming the knowledge to skills so it can be beneficial to them and make them self reliant.”
He added that “NYSC is a gateway organisation that can be used to harness the potential of the youth in the country which will aid the nation in his drive to transform the economy to digital economy.
Abdullahi noted that the Agency has built ICT hubs and Digital Job Capacity Centre across the country which he said can be used in transforming knowledge to skills. He called on the youths not only to use their devices for social media alone as it is distracting and time wastage but to learn skills online and make money.
He added that, “Social media abuse is a burning issue that disturbs everyone; we have to work with other government agencies to collaborate on solving the issue. There is need to regulate it and people should be held responsible for whatever content they posted,” he said.
