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 on Wednesday 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.
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