Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, has decried the level of desperation by some Nigerians to acquire educational certificates even through the back door in effort to be mobilised for the one-year national youth service programme.
Ibrahim made the remarks yesterday in Asaba, Delta State, in his keynote address at the opening of the 2020 batch ‘A’ pre-mobilisation workshop for stakeholders of NYSC with the theme: ‘Effective Stakeholders Engagement for Seamless NYSC Mobilisation Process’.
He expressed dismay at the action of some desperate youths who practically purchase degrees they did not even study for from certain countries especially within the West African sub-region, and then seek NYSC service mobilisation without good conscience.
While alerting the country to the socio-economic implications of having such characters employed in the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy, the NYSC DG assured Nigerians that the Corps has evolved foolproof measures including a strict process of certificate evaluation through which many fake graduates have been apprehended.
He said many fraudulent persons have so far been caught in the NYSC certificate verification net, and reiterated that anyone caught would face prosecution.
Ibrahim said: “Let me assure Nigeria that under our watch, NYSC will not mobilise any unqualified person for national service or, as the case may be, issue exemption certificate to such persons. I wish to restate our warning that anyone caught presenting fake academic credentials will be prosecuted.”
He however counseled parents and guardians not to take their eyes off their children and wards in tertiary institutions within and outside the country in order to discourage fraudulent activities, adding that parents to oversea students should also ensure that they (students) make themselves available for national service on completion of their studies, in line with the NYSC Act.
He thanked the federal government for implementing the new allowance for NYSC members in line with the new national minimum wage, and also commended the Delta State Government for its continued support for NYSC especially in the area of corps welfare.
Declaring the workshop open, the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, who was represented by the state Youth Development Commissioner, Ifeanyi Egwuyenga, urged the NYSC authorities to sustain the tempo of the graduate certificate verification process designed to restore sanity in the programme.
Okowa pledged his administration continuous support for the scheme especially in the areas of security and welfare of corps members posted to the state.
