By Olusegun Obisanya
National Youth Service Corps Members (NYSC) have advocated the need to build strong institutions in Nigeria to ensure social justice, sustainable growth and development.
They stated this at the grand finale of the 12th edition of the annual NYSC essay competition/national symposium organized by The Bible Society of Nigeria held in Lagos recently.
Themed “Building strong institutions: A pathway to national rebirth, the six corpers who made it to competition final, unanimously argued that strong institutions would promote accountability, equity, separation of powers and rule of law.
According to them, the process of building strong institutions begins from the family being the first point of socialization and smallest unit of the society.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Meskely Nwagboh, a banker, said that without strong institutions the future would remain bleak, adding that most of the successful businesses in the world are located in the U.S because the country maintains strong institutions to ensure accountability.
According to him, it is not enough for a country to have a set of laws; people must be held accountable when they willfully flout the laws.
“Institutions are built by people, operated, and managed by people. If you have laws in place and those laws are flouted by people, those who broke the law should be held accountable. That is how to build strong institutions,” he added.
The President and Board Chairman of BSN, Bishop Timothy Banwo, who was represented by the Honourary Treasurer of BSN, Mr. Bolaji Adisa, posited that strong institutions would stabilize the society, while the General Secretary/CEO, BSN, Pastor Samuel Sanusi, commended the corps members for their brilliant performances at the written essay competition leading to the symposium.
Praise Modekwu of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State won the first position and went home with a cash prize of ₦400,000; student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Osun State, Odelano Oluwafunke was the first runner-up, he received the sum of ₦300,000. Tashi David of University of Jos, Plateau State was the second runner-up and got ₦250,000.
