Between the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the University of Calabar (UNICAL), the blight of fake graduates is like ‘when it rains, it pours.’ Recently, the scheme disclosed that it demobilised 54 illegally mobilised corps members from the university to forestall Certificates of National Service being issued to unqualified persons. ..Read Full Article
That disclosure, interestingly, was made just few days after the NYSC said it had invalidated the service certificates of 101 illegally mobilised graduates of same university who participated in the scheme between 2021 and 2023. And you never know just how many more are yet to be discovered.
NYSC Director-General, Brigadier-General Yusha’u Ahmed, was reported saying of the 54 demobilised persons, 19 who registered online for mobilisation were blocked from service, while service certificates were withheld from four others. A statement by the scheme’s spokesperson Eddy Megwa, which reported what the Director-General said, did not clarify the status of the 31 others. It is perhaps safe for Hardball to assume they had gotten into the service year, which is mandatory for genuine graduates, but were yet to conclude when they were detected.
The NYSC boss said the illegal service enrollees would be prosecuted, and hailed the alertness of UNICAL Vice-Chancellor, Professor Florence Obi, who raised the red flag on the illegal mobilisations. “The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar came here to report that she observed some names appeared on the institution’s list and they ought not to have been there. She checked the list the school gave us, and I told her that their certificates would be invalidated. I give kudos to the Vice-Chancellor,” he said, adding: “Previously, a bread seller was mobilised on the graduation list from the same institution. There are bad eggs in many places that generate matriculation numbers and courses for their candidates.”
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Following the earlier announcement of invalidation of 101 service certificates, UNICAL Pro-Chancellor Udom Ekpoudom, a retired Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Police, vowed action against staff involved in mobilising fake graduates from the institution. It is important to walk that talk, because someone is obviously making hay from packing graduation lists for youth service with quacks. Gen. Ahmed himself mentioned that failure in corps members’ mobilisation process had to do with the integrity of the management of corps producing institutions. “Those responsible for imputing the data of graduates should be people of integrity,” he said.
But it’s only that UNICAL is confronting its demon. It is by no means the only institution involved in the menace and there are countless phony graduates from other institutions, facilitated by fraudulent officials of those institutions, yet infecting the service scheme. The NYSC itself needs to audit its system, because there are reports that some corps members who do not even know the way to their respective place of assignment regularly secure clearance for their monthly allowance. It sucks…..Read Full Article
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