The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has urged governments at all levels and wealthy individuals to do more in the creation of jobs for youths to stem criminality.
The Commandant of NSCDC, Enugu State Command, Mr Valentine Afrika, made the plea during the Command’s Motivation Celebration of its rank and file personnel, who had put in dedication and resilience to their duties in 2021.
Afrika said that residents should also “exploit collective community efforts” to see that places of work can be provided for the teeming jobless youths roaming most communities.
“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Idleness has led promising youths being lured into vices and criminality as well as the latest being youths engaging in intake of hard drugs.
“If there is adequate employment for virtually all youths, I sincerely believe that crime will be reduced to the barest minimum and almost all our youths will be useful to themselves, families and communities.
“Governments at all levels should emphasise building more industries; while wealthy individuals and communities can build cottage industries to complement government efforts,” he said.
The commandant appealed to residents of the state to assist the corps with credible security information to ensure safety of lives and property, adding: “Security remains everybody’s business’’.
Afrika thanked the Commandant-General of the NSCDC, Mr Ahmed Audi, for his steadfastness and vision to take the corps’ image to greater height and make it the best security formation in the country.
On the Command’s Motivation Celebration of its rank and file personnel, the commandant said that the rank and file personnel of the command had done creditably well in 2021 and had remained a source of pride to the command.
According to him, due to their continuous exceptional performance, the corps authorities graciously promoted 126 rank and file personnel in the command in 2021 after they all virtually passed their promotion exams.
“In 2021, they were outstanding in bearing arms as well as facing criminals which led to the general success of the command; even Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi also attested to their hard work and dedication in our security meeting late last year.
“As a command, we are also proud of them and there is no better time to say thank you than now, especially as the commandant-general had given us the go ahead to do just that.
“Our just concluded statewide yuletide operation was seamless, smooth and successful due to their dedication, dutifulness and resilience to weather all odds that came their way,” he said.
Reacting, One of the rank and file personnel, Inspector Blessing Edet, thanked the commandant-general and the state commandant for celebrating them, adding: “This will go a long way to motivate us and show that our efforts are appreciated in the corps”. (NAN)
