The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC is collaborating with the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA to create more Information and Communication Technology centers in state secretariats across Nigeria.
The NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Shu’aibu Ibrahim stated this during a visit to the DG NITDA, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi in Abuja, explaining that the NYSC wants the NITDA to replicate the Information and Communication Technology Centre it established at the Federal Capital Territory Secretariat in other states.
He said this would further strengthen the ICT platform of Corps saying that both agencies have a long-standing relationship, hence the visit was to strengthen the collaborations that exist between them.
General Ibrahim noted that this partnership would also assist the Corp to overcome some of the challenges being faced by Corp members, especially in 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 members of the public. You can imagine people creating accounts to defraud Corp member that they can help them to be redeployed,” he said.
He called for the arrest of such people to serve as deterrents to others so as to reduce the menace.
While responding the Director-General NITDA Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi gave the assurance that NITDA would look into the requests and begin 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 stated that “we can expand it to cover the FCT as a pilot project”
Mr. Abdullahi stated that it was pertinent for the agencies of government to partner in helping to build the skills of the Corp members saying that “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 reliance.”
The DG explained that “NYSC is a gateway organization that can be used to harness the potential of the youths in the country which will in turn aid the country in its drive-in transforming the economy to digital economy,” he noted.
Abdullahi stated 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 urged all to explore the potentials of social media to acquire skills and generate revenue for themselves.
He stated that Social media abuse was a burning issue that disturbs everyone which requires the corp to work with other government agencies to solve the issue.
He adds that there is a need to regulate it and people should be held responsible for whatever content they posted. The DG said.
Source: VON
