Nigerian youth corps members serving at the Akwa State Orientation Camp of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of meals despite the government’s raised feeding allowance.
The aggrieved members revealed to SaharaReporters that the state coordinator and officials allegedly provided subpar meals, leading many to use personal funds to purchase food.
A camp insider disclosed that though the government increased the daily allowance to N1500, allocating N500 per meal, the food provided in Akwa Ibom falls short of the expected standard for a N500 meal.
The source said, “It is important to note that the federal government had increased the feeding allowance for corps members in camp from N650 per day to N1,500 per day. Therefore every meal stands for N500.
“Despite that freedom of information (FOI) mandates organisations to make public information open, the NYSC Akwa Ibom Coordinator, Ekwe N. I. Chinyere, is hiding this vital information from corps members.
“They are afraid because the quality and quantity of the food is not in any way up to N500. Some of the foods are not above N150; that is beans porridge, pap/akamu, garri/beans etc.”
The source said that most corps members were prepared to buy food in the camp market, popularly known as Mammy Market because of low quality of the food in the camp kitchen.
According to the source, many corps members have exited the camp on the grounds of sickness, pregnancy or marriage, “but their feeding allowance goes straight to the pocket of the NYSC officials.”
