NYSC Twice Enrollment: Undercover Reporter Breached Our System To Enrol Twice – NYSC
The National Youth Service Corps Scheme (NYSC) has admitted that there was a loophole in its mobilisation process that allowed an undercover reporter to be drafted twice for the compulsory one-year programme.
The reporter, who had earlier served in the scheme in 2019, was able to register again in 2023 by changing his email address and phone number, despite having a National Identification Number (NIN) that should have flagged him as a previous participant.
The Director of Public Affairs, NYSC, Mr Eddy Megwa, disclosed this on a Channels Television programme on Thursday, saying that the reporter was initially posted to Osun State before he was discovered and dismissed.
Megwa said that the scheme did not have a database of graduates to serve in the scheme, but relied on the lists sent by the Senates of the various universities, stating the number of graduates to expect from them.
He added that the scheme was also facing challenges in verifying the certificates of foreign graduates, who often lacked the basic skills and knowledge required for the programme.
He said that the scheme had resorted to inviting foreign students and giving them tests to assess their abilities, revealing that some of them could not write a simple essay in English Language.
He cited an example of a supposed corps member in 2006, who could not state the title of his final project, and was later found to have been smuggled into the list of graduates from a particular university.
He said that the scheme was collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Education, Foreign Affairs Ministry and other agencies to track people going for foreign studies and when they come back with their certificates.
Meanwhile, the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the Republic of Benin, Okechukwu Favour, has appealed to the Federal Government to reconsider its ban on certificates and degrees from higher institutions in that country.
Favour, who also appeared on the television show, said that the ban would affect over 15,000 Nigerian students who were studying in Benin Republic, and who were not involved in any fraudulent activities.
He said that the ban was unfair and unjust, as it would jeopardise the future of legitimate students who were at various levels of their studies.
He acknowledged that the undercover reporter had helped to expose some misdeeds, but he also breached certain conventions in the process.
He urged the government to punish the guilty ones, but spare the innocent.
Recall that the Federal Government had slammed a ban on graduates from some foreign universities following the expose by the reporter that he was able to get a degree from a university in Benin Republic within six weeks and was even mobilised for the NYSC one year programme.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, SAN, had said that a committee had been set up to appraise the whole system and make recommendations on how to improve the quality and integrity of the scheme.
