THE National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has demobilised 54 persons who claimed to be graduates of the University of Calabar (UNICAL).
The decision follows a detailed verification process by the NYSC, which uncovered significant discrepancies in the academic records of the affected individuals.
According to a statement by the director of Information and Public Relations, Eddy Megwa, on Friday night, August 17, the move is to prevent the award of certificates of national service to unqualified persons.
The director general of the NYSC, Brigadier-General Yusha’u Ahmed in the statement, noted that the fake graduates would be prosecuted accordingly.
He further stated that out of the 54 individuals, 19 had registered online for mobilisation but have since been barred from participating in the service.
He added that the NYSC did not issue certificates of national service to four other culprits.
“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 her.
“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”, the DG said.
The NYSC boss reiterated the scheme’s commitment to transparency in the conduct of the national service programme, assuring it would intensify its collaboration with heads of corp producing institutions and relevant stakeholders in the country to stop the menace.
Ahmed emphasised that any failure in the mobilisation process from any school falls on the integrity of the management of such an institution, stating: “Those who are responsible for imputing the data of graduates should be people of integrity.”
He called on all employers of labour in the country to verify the authenticity of certificates being presented for job placement from the NYSC.
The ICIR reports that this was not the first time the NYSC has demobilised or invalidated certificates of individuals due to irregularities of UNICAL graduates.
On Monday, August 12, the scheme invalidated the certificates of 101 graduates fraudulently mobilised by the same university during the 2021, 2022 and 2023 service years.
This action, according to a statement by Megwa, followed the discovery that 99 of the said graduates and two others on exemption were fraudulently mobilised despite being ineligible for the scheme.
“Management of the NYSC hereby restates its strong commitment to ensuring that unqualified locally and foreign-trained Nigerian youths, especially those purported to have graduated from unaccredited universities, are not recognised while only qualified persons are issued with certificates of national service.”
“Arising from the above, the certificates of national service of the under-listed persons have been invalidated forthwith by the NYSC management.”
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M