Brigadier General Muhammad Kaku Fadah, the Director General (DG) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has voiced his concerns over the diminishing calibre of graduates being presented for Mobilization.
This was said by Gen. Fadah on Thursday at the Abuja-based 2022 Batch "C" Pre-Mobilization Workshop's opening ceremony.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board's (JAMB) Registrar and Chief Executive, Prof. Ishaq Olarewaju Oloyede, has revealed that between 2017 and 2021, about one million applicants were improperly accepted to Nigeria's tertiary institutions.
The DG while delivering his address at the event decried the “presentation of unqualified persons for National Service,” while assuring that the Scheme “remains unwavering” in its determination to block the attempted presentation of such persons.
According to Gen Fadah, “During the 2022 Batch ‘B’ Streams I and II Orientation programmes, our field officers detected a good number of Prospective Corps Members, 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 a compelling need for school managers and other stakeholders in education to rise to the occasion and nip this problem in the bud.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we remain unwavering in our determination to block attempted presentation of unqualified persons for National Service.
This, he stated informed the choice of the theme of this workshop, “Stemming Fraudulent Enlistment in the Mobilisation Process: Time for Drastic Action to Arrest the Menace.”
Gen. Fadah, while calling on the support of all stakeholders to curtail this menace said, “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. for.”
He expressed sincere appreciation to the Administration and good people of the FCT for their continuous support for the NYSC.
“Our appreciation also goes to our partners such as the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board; National Board for Technical Education; National Universities Commission (NUC); the Federal Ministry of Education; SIDMACH Technologies; and all other invited guests for sparing their valuable time to be part of this occasion.”
The NYCC Pre-Mobilisation Workshop usually heralds the commencement of the service year and is a platform for relevant stakeholders to fashion out strategies for the success of the Mobilisation process. This edition commenced on Wednesday with data collation and induction of new officers.
Data Entry Officers from Corps Producing Institutions were exposed to the new features of the NYSC Integrated System for error-free entries.
Also speaking, Prof. Oloyede said, all problems related to mobilisation either rightly or wrongly are put at the doorstep of JAMB.
According to him, “We are ready to accept but will continue to say that while we are ready to take the blame, we won’t hesitate to prove our innocence. We will be proving our innocence by exposing those who are actually culpable.”
Prof. Oloyede disclosed that JAMB has over 900 institutions that are producing candidates for admission.
Assuring that, they will continue to take measures in conjunction with the NYSC to make sure that the “fake ones among those who are being mobilised are demobilised.”
“One of the steps we have taken is to introduce the Central Admissions Processing System, CAPS which accommodates all the genuine cases and exposes all the bad ones.
“CAPS has shown clearly that those who are bad have nowhere to hide and will continue to be exposed. We started CAPS in 2017. Some people thought it was a joke, but we have come out with a list of people who have been illegally admitted between 2017 and 2021.
“As of today, on their own, tertiary institutions who had initially denied any culpability, have confessed they gave illegal admission to close to one million candidates between 2017 and 2021. Last year, the Honourable Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu, eventually granted amnesty and directed that we should try and see how we can rescue close to one million candidates that have been illegally admitted.
“If you take into consideration that the country admits about 600,000 candidates into tertiary institutions each year, you will realise that close to one million (illegal candidates) is enough to destabilise the system. We are calling on corps-producing institutions to make sure that they follow the rules. We have 921,013 that have been illegally admitted with the aim of being mobilized for the NYSC. Evil people are widely distributed. We have different shades of malpractices in JAMB exams.
“If you are talking about cheating in the exams hall and trying to change the marks, go to Southern Nigeria. However, if you are talking about manipulating the registration process before the exams, go to Northern Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the Director of Mobilisation Mrs. Victoria Ango in her opening remarks informed participants that since Gen. Fadah assumed duty as the 19th DG, he has taken bold steps to reposition the NYSC for improved service delivery.
“This is a welcome development construed to be consistent with the remarkable performance of the scheme in the area of corps mobilisation through the Pre-mobilisation workshop.
“Indeed, the programme provides an avenue for review of previous performances and in the process, brings new ideas to overcome observable challenges in the mobilisation process.”