June 15, 2021
By: Aruna Kamara (Bo)
The National Youth Service with support from the United Nations Development Program(UNDP) has a held a one day consultative meeting with youths in Bo District in the southern region to review the National Youth Service(NYS) 2016 Act.
The meeting, which attracted young people from all works of life, took place at the Bo District Council Hall at Falaba Section in Bo on Monday.
The Executive Director of the National Youth Service, Mohamed O. Jalloh said that the Parliament of Sierra Leone enacted the NYS Act and gazette as Vol. CXLV11. No. 17 dated 12 March 2016.
Sierra Leone’s NYS, which was launched in December 2016, is a national programme that promotes youth participation in governance.
The 2016 NYS Act, he said, aims to create work opportunities and sustainable livelihoods for young persons; instill in participants a sense of responsibility and of service to the country; gain a sense of self-respect and respect for authority; understand the values of discipline, democracy, citizenship and cooperation; and foster social cohesion.
The objectives of the NYS scheme as stipulated in the 2016 National Youth Service Act include inculcating a disciplined work ethics among the youth of Sierra Leone and a sense of patriotic and loyal service; develop a collective sense of the need to mobilize towards these goals through shared experiences and relevant training; develop common ties and a sense of common destiny among young people to promote national unity and integration; promote an equitable distribution of service members and the utilization of their skills to better fulfill the country’s needs.
He added that the objective is to create a sense of awareness about the cultural diversity in Sierra Leone; provide opportunities for employment all over Sierra Leone and to promote the free movement of labour at the end of the national service.
He noted that the 2016 act also mentioned about undertaking projects designed to combat hunger, illiteracy, disease and unemployment, promote the spirit of voluntarism among the youth of Sierra Leone, give young people an opportunity to learn about the importance of the higher ideals of achieving national goals; encourage youth to acquire a spirit of self-reliance and to develop skills for self-employment that will contribute to the country’s economic growth; eliminate ignorance, remove prejudices and promote an understanding of the many similarities among ethnic groups in Sierra Leone;
Mr Jalloh said the act also assigns youth outside their regions and districts of origin to develop a sense of patriotism and national and encourage employers who have had experience with qualified service members to provide them employment irrespective of their region of origin.
Mr. Jalloh said before 2018 , the act was just on paper conceived by the former Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai but the new direction government led by President Bio wants it to move from paper and become practical so that the young people can maximize their potentials.
He stated that when they took over the mantle of leadership they went to other countries such as Kenya and Ghana to study their model as Sierra Leone was using the Nigeria model but it was later realized that the Kenya’s are advance in terms skills.
Mr.Jalloh noted that they want the NYS 2016 act to be reviewed so that it will not only target the graduates from the University but cater for the other sector of the youth who have not gone to college.
He however said that the graduates who went through the national youth service have been gainfully employed citing the Bo District Council which recruited Luncida Bockarie as a Human Resource Officer of the council, adding that they have so far got the third batch of NYS corps.
According to Mr. Jalloh, another batch of recruitment will be done but youth are encouraged to apply but must be technologically inclined as applications are done online.
The Director of Communications, Mr. Kaikai said that when a document is old, it must be reviewed to meet to the needs of the modern times, as the country cannot develop without the middle level manpower.
He added that when President Bio assumed the mantle of leadership, he spoke about empowering the youths to contribute to nation building.
He said that a lot of youths became frustrated upon graduation from college because they do not have a job but since President Bio came into power he made the NYS act a workable document, adding that some of the graduates have also become job creators.
Some of the youth commended President Bio for making them become useful citizens to contribute to nation building, adding that to reviewing the act to focus on the youths who are not graduates is a step in the right direction.
They called on NYS to ensure that their aspirations are reflected in the revised act so that the National youth service will target the youths who stopped half way in their educational pursuit or have skills but not employed to eke out their living.