The Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Brig-Gen Mohammed Fadah has said the annual sports and cultural festival among corps members was designed to harness the potential of the youths towards sustainable national development.
He added that the competition was designed to also explore talents in dance, drama and sports thereby urging corps members not to take the 2022 NYSC edition of the annual festival as a do or die affair.
Mohammed Fadah stated this at the inauguration of the zonal preliminaries of the 2022 NYSC annual sports and cultural festival held, on Sunday, at the state permanent orientation camp, Wailo, in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of the state.
The NYSC DG was represented by Mr John Guli, Assistant Director, Community Development Service (CDS), NYSC headquarters saying that it was to further entrench the objectives of the scheme towards promoting national unity.
According to him, “The scheme seeks to provide an avenue for further interactions among corps members of diverse backgrounds, irrespective of our ethnic and religious differences, we can lift our country higher through our shared values, spirit of patriotism and collective will”.
“I implore you to adhere strictly to the rules of the festival. You are to also conduct yourselves peacefully throughout the period,” the DG appealed.
He added that, “You should all imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship by not taking the competition as a do or die affair but a platform to showcase your talents.”
“To the referees, umpires and judges of dance, drama and standout comedy, I urge you to please display professionalism and fairness in officiating the competition,” he said.
Earlier, Alhaji Namadi Abubakar, the state coordinator of the scheme, congratulated the corps members for representing their respective states.
Namadi Abubakar who was represented by Mr Ochi Onyike, Assistant Director, Deployment and Relocation, NYSC, Bauchi, appreciated the state government and the people of the state for providing them an enabling environment to conduct the exercise.
States participating in the competition in Bauchi Zone include Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Taraba and Yobe.
Gombe state would be locking horns with Jigawa state, Taraba takes on Adamawa while Yobe would be slogging it out with Borno state in both football and volleyball competition. Other competitions are track events (athletics), dance, drama as well as comedy.