From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The management of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), on Thursday expressed deep concerns over what it described as declining quality of graduates mobilised for the one year compulsory Service.
Director General of the scheme, Brigadier General Mohammed Fadah, raised the alarms in his address at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Batch ‘C Pre-mobilisation Workshop held in Abuja.
He further noted that with series of confessions extracted from foreign trained, there is compelling need for institution managers and other stakeholders in education to rise to the occasion and nip the problem in the bud.
His words: “Permit me to use this forum to once again voice out our concern about the declining quality of graduates being presented for mobilization. During the 2022 Batch ‘B’ Streams I and II Orientation programmes, our field officers detected a good number of Prospective Corps Members (PCMs), especially those claiming to be foreign trained, with shocking inability to defend their supposed educational qualifications.
“Series of confessions were extracted from them, and these will hopefully assist us in carrying out further investigations. You will agree with me that there is the compelling need for school managers and other stakeholders in education to rise to the occasion and nip this problem in the bud,” he said.
Brigadier General Fadah warned that; “for the avoidance of doubt, we remain unwavering in our determination to block attempted presentation of unqualified persons for National Service.
“This informed the choice of the theme of this workshop, “Stemming Fraudulent Enlistment in the Mobilization Process: Time for Drastic Action to Arrest the Menace.” We, therefore, count on the support of all stakeholders in this regard.
“During our maiden meeting with Registrars of Corps Producing Institutions in Nigeria held in April 2022, they made commitments regarding the strengthening of their data security.
“We expect that, amongst other steps, the institutions will always ensure that only credible officers are entrusted with the task of the handing data of their graduates being processed mobilization,” he charged.
Strengthening the stand of the Director-General, Ango Victoria, the Director Corps Mobilisation, said: “When issues fraudulent enlistment are mentioned in meetings many people seem not to fully understand the magnitude. We are determined to show some few examples of what have been saving all these while.
“Of course, there is common saying that seeing believing. Therefore, at the appropriate time during the business session, participants would shown samples of video recordings and written scripts of culprits nabbed during the 2022 Batch 1 registration on camp,” she noted in her address.