July 29, 2013
 
His Excellency,
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan 
 (GCFR),
 
Sir,
INTRODUCTION OF POST NYSC TAKE OFF GRANT
 
I write with a deep sense of humility and responsibility to call the attention of
your Excellency to the issue of restructuring the National Youth Service Corps
(NYSC) in the area of welfare of corps members after service.
I am one of the corps members from the Polytechnic, Ibadan who had just concluded
the three-week orientation course at Umudi in Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo
State prior to the one-year mandatory national service.
There is no denying the fact that your transformation agenda is a blessing to this
country. I make bold as to say that, the skill acquisition programmes for the 2013
Batch B corps members in Imo State which I believe are the same with what obtains in
other states of the federation are excellent programmes.
Many skill acquisition programmes and entrepreneurship training which if undergone
and keenly studied, one will discover that it will have direct and positive impact
on youth corps members during and after the service year. Corps members participated
in different vocational classes’ such as chalk making, paint making,bead making, tie
and die, decorations, writing proposals, business plan, (feasibility studies), ICT,
computer engineering to mention but a few. Though, it is a prvilege serving our
fatherland.
Sir, you will agree with me that after the service year, the majority of corps
members always end up in the labour market seeking white collar jobs from government
and private institutions. Even after been equipped with entrepreneurial skill, some
of us plan to venture into business, to put what we learnt into practice but capital
remains the problem to tackle. I believe providing sum amount of money after the
service year will help corps members to become employers of labour in no time.I
therefore urge you to consider the approval of post NYSC take off grant in due
course where money will be given to  corps members after the service year which will
be invested in business, so that the entrepreneur knowledge and experience will not
be a waste at the end of it all.
It is a great disservice if corps members could not put into practice the knowledge
acquired during the national service five, six years after the service due to
unavailability of jobs as the lobour market is already saturated. Sir issue of corps
member been raped and butchered needs urgents attention as I am convinced you are
caring father who frowned at such act and perpetrators of such be brought to book to
relieve the aggrieved family and warn other intent rebels.
Sir, your administration has put a good programme in place for corps members and
while commending you in the light of this, I also believe that the approval 
 of NYSC take off grant will go a long way to assist fresh graduates to be
sufficiently empowered.
Many jobless graduates had in the past joined illicit businesses such as armed
robbery, kidnapping, advanced fee fraud, visa and travel documents racketeering and
so on in order to survive after years of searching for white collar jobs which are
non-existent.
Sir, this take off grant of not less than N200,000 , will be appreciated by the
beneficiary and that the amount should not be seen as own share of the national cake
but as means of youth empowerment, while modalities for the distribution be worked
out by the authorities of NYSC.
May God Almighty guide you a right to see this as a step in the right direction.
 
Yours faithfully,
Jimoh Wasiu Ola
IM/13B/0748