The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyode, has called on members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to rise as a new breed of youths determined to fight against every form of economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption.
They must also be prepared to be catalysts for national development and springboards of progress.
He gave the charge in Kano on Thursday, November 27, 2025, while addressing Batch ‘C’ Stream 1 corps members at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Kusalla Dam, Karaye Local Government of Kano State.
According to him, corps members should go beyond seeing themselves as ordinary youths; rather, they should see themselves asa new breed of youths ready to confront and conquer the monster of corruption in the land. “ It is not enough to see yourselves as youths in today’s Nigeria, you need to see and carry yourselves as a new breed of youths. A new breed of youths should be angry with the failures of the past and develop strengths for new successes. As a new breed of youth, we decide to be a solution, rather than a problem, a builder, not a breaker, a thinker, not a plunderer, a pillar, not an evil caterpillar! Nigeria needs a new breed of youths who will be catalysts of development and springboards of progress”, he said.
Olukoyede, who spoke through the Head of Public Affairs, EFCC Kano Zonal Directorate, Superintendent of EFCC, SE Idris Isiyaku, pointed out that, “Every terror in our land can be traced to corrupt practices. Hunger, diseases, untimely death, banditry, inflation, indebtedness, unemployment and other issues of social dislocation are caused by corruption. A new breed of youths should not be comfortable with these grim scenarios.”
In Lagos, at the NYSC Orientation Camp in IIyana-Ip, the EFCC’s boss warned the corps against internet fraud, urging them to shun criminality. “No serious-minded and future-building youth will allow his or her possibilities to be mortgaged through internet fraud… Be creative, innovative, enterprising and resourceful”, he said.
Speaking through Babatunde Sulaiman, Head, Public Affairs Department, Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, Olukoyede charged Corps members to strive and come up with their own unique ways of building the nation by forming or joining anti-corruption pressure groups and defending the EFCC against its detractors.
In Oyo State at the NYSC Orientation Camp, Iseyin, the anti-corruption czar, who was represented by Head, Public Affairs Department of the Ibadan Zonal Directorate, Olumide Egbodofo, tasked the corpers to be change agents wherever they find themselves in order to influence their environments for positive engagements. “In your place of primary assignments, ensure you showcase integrity, accountability and right conduct. Leadership flows from little places, actions and responsibilities. What you do at the level of your primary assignments will either define or deflate you”, he said.
He charged the corps members in Enugu through the Head of Legal and Prosecution Department, Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Commission, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE I Faruk Abdullah, that being whistleblowers would offer them the opportunities to demonstrate their patriotic duties by exposing every shadiness and corrupt practice around them. “Exposing corrupt practices around you is not only obligatory, but is also patriotic. The EFCC is relying on you to always expose shady deals in your environment. To conveniently do this, you can use the Eagle Eye App, which is a digital application to report corruption cases”, he said.
The same message was relayed to the corps members in Kaduna, through Chief Superintendent of the EFCC, CSE Nana Fatima Abubakar , in other Zonal Directorates: Maiduguri, Benin-City, Ilorin, Uyo, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Makurdi and other places.
