The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NYSC

  • Time Adebayo Shittu threw in the towel

    COMMUNICATIONS minister, Adebayo Shittu, shocked Nigerians last week when he argued that his election into the Oyo State House of Assembly in 1979 exempted him from the mandatory one-year youth service scheme. His interpretation of the NYSC Act, particularly the grounds for exemption, does not do justice to his training as a lawyer. The Act stipulates four grounds for exemption; Mr Shittu met none in 1979 when, according to his own claim, he deliberately evaded service. The minister’s status as a ‘draft dodger’ became newsworthy after Finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, resigned her appointment for presenting a forged NYSC exemption certificate.

    Mr Shittu proudly boasts that his self-exemption is morally superior to Mrs Adeosun’s forged exemption. It is hard to see how. There is not enough proof that the former Finance minister knew that the certificate she presented was forged. But after investigations showed conclusively that it was a forgery, she promptly resigned her appointment. There are suggestions she should have resigned after the story first broke. Perhaps. But the lateness does not mitigate the redemptive value of her resignation.

    Mr Shittu on the other hand knowingly evaded the scheme, and continues to insist implausibly that he has done no wrong. NYSC officials have corroborated reports indicating that the exemption claimed by Mr Shittu is unknown to law. They restated the widely held opinion that the minister erred very badly in evading the one-year service and determining by himself that his election as a lawmaker was a good enough substitute.

    It needs no investigation to kick Mr Shittu out of the cabinet. He has owned up to evading the scheme, and his legal arguments, if they can be so called, fall flat. His claim of exemption is inexcusable. Yes, he can still serve, if he is persuaded that his legal arguments are supercilious. But it must not be as a cabinet member in the Buhari government. It is important to make the point first that such an errant behaviour will not be tolerated under any guise. And for invoking an offensive and mocking sleight of hand to justify his grave misjudgement, the minister does not deserve the sympathy of President Muhammadu Buhari who must make the point unambiguously that such exasperating behaviour would not be condoned.

    If Mr Shittu does not have the good sense to relinquish his position, the president should make an example of him by kicking him out. It is inconceivable that the president will deem his minister’s offence as a minor one, one not sufficient enough to rouse his displeasure. Let the president walk his anti-corruption talk now if he wants to be taken serious.

  • Okon hawks discharge certificates

    With central authority embroiled in a rash of certificate scandals, particularly NYSC discharge certificate, you begin to wonder whether this is going to be good old General Yakubu Gowon final revenge on the group of subordinate officers who ousted him from office while he was attending a conference in faraway Kampala. The August 1975 coupists and their mentors appear to have completely stamped out the Gowonist tendency from the polity having replaced it with their own. It is just as well that one of them is back in office as a civilian ruler.

    Initiated by General Gowon after ground breaking policy thrusts by the late Professor Adebayo Adedeji, the NYSC was a glorious scheme of national integration. Although many believe that it has had its time and was meant for another era, the NYSC served as a cultural, political and existential bridge in those days, particularly in the inglorious aftermath of the civil war. But with the current clamour for its abrogation, it is obvious that the typical Nigerian disease of throwing the baby out with the bathtub is on display.

    What the NYSC needs is a drastic modification of its modus operandi in order to align its operative procedure with current realities. In many spheres of public life, Nigeria operates policies that are designed to last forever, without any attention to internal shifts in originating logic or external shifts in the polity itself.

    Snooper spent a wonderful NYSC year in the old East Central State and enjoyed it so much that he chose to go and work in the north, having spent all his life in the old west. The northern experience was even more culturally and politically significant in the sense that it opened up a rich and intriguing political engagement with other tendencies in the nation that one had only read about up till that point.

    You can then imagine the consternation of this columnist when the story broke that while many of us were being drilled military style in parade grounds in some faraway places on the NYSC programme, some deadbeats and low-lifers were scheming about how to avoid the service. They were not conscientious objectors in the American tradition, but petty schemers and ethical misfits without any high ideals in life except self-positioning.

    You can trust the comical duo of Okon and Baba Lekki to do justice to the national embarrassment. A few days after the story broke, Okon sauntered on lugging a heavy leather box chaotically bulging with papers and documents. As usual Baba Lekki was in tow, wearing a magisterial frown even as he fastened a dirty ragged handkerchief on his nose apparently to ward off the national stench.

    “Ha, oga Okon, have you chosen to become a vendor, or what is all these papers about?” snooper opened in a good-natured manner.

    “Oga, na NYSC discharge cerfiticate I dey sell. He be like if say na dem thin go bring down all dem Yoruba people for dem mala gobment”, the mad boy drooled with satanic relish.

    “I see”. Snooper muttered.

    “Oga I wan quickly reach Shaki through dem Moniya make I sell dem discharge certificate to dem yeye Yoruba man with dem wuruwuru beard before dem fire am for gobment. Dem say sef dat him fit reach Kirikiri make him de go do him yeye nonsense for the place”.

    “Okon, but the man has said he didn’t do youth service at all”, snooper noted.

    “Ha oga no mind the yeye man. Discharge cerfiticate no concern whether him do or him no do. He mean say him don discharge. Sebi him get many wives? Abi him no dey discharge? Wetin concern warder with say prisoner no get wrist watch. ?” Okon crowed.

    “So how do you sell the certificate?”,  snooper inquired.

    “Aha, now you dey ask better question. I get am for one month discharge, two-month discharge, three month discharge and one year. I dey do accidental discharge too. Na dat one dem dey call baban discharge, when Youth Corper discharge policewoman and policewoman come surcharge corper. He get one mala like dat and I come ask whether him don do Youth Service and him come scream at me say damburuba , dukunkuda youth must to stay for dem papa’s house to do dem service”.

    “Discharged and acquitted “, Baba Lekki suddenly rumbled from the depths of alcoholic slumber.

    “Baba, you don wake? Na dis burukutu go finish old Yoruba man ooo.” Okon snorted.

    “Give me paraga then, abi I need discharge certificate for dat one too?” the old man slurred.

    “Baba where you do service sef?” Okon charged merrily.

    “Na with your mama for Calabar. Na me dey do youth service for her”, the old man whimpered. Okon took violent exception to that and the two rogues started fighting. It was at this point that yours sincerely drove the crazy duo out of the house.

  • Screening: I didn’t present NYSC certificate because I had none —Communication Minister

    Communication Minister Adebayo Shittu said yesterday that he never presented any National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate during his screening by the National Assembly because he never had any.

    Shittu who is under public scrutiny for allegedly  skipping the national service claimed that  he has not breached any law by not going for the national service.

    The Minister spoke to reporters at the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) where he had gone for  screening of  the party’s governorship aspirants.

    He said his case is different to that of Kemi Adeosun,who resigned as finance minister last week for presenting a fake NYSC discharge certificate during her confirmation by the Senate as minister.

    Shittu admitted that he never made himself available for the mandatory national youth service after his graduation from the Nigeria Law School in 1979.

    His words: “I left law school in 1979 and the constitution says anyone who qualifies to contest an election or who has gone through an election and wins, he is obligated to move through the House of Assembly which I did for four years, so it is a form of higher service as far as I’m concerned and even now, I am still in service.”

    Asked whether he knew he had violated the law by his action,the minister said: “I’m not worried. Do you see any worry on my face?

    “I don’t think I  have infringed any law except someone has a superior argument and prove it.”

    When his attention was drawn to the case of Adeosun and her decision to throw in the towel,Shittu said: “there is a  wall  of difference. Unfortunately, Kemi had a fake certificate.

    “I didn’t present any, I didn’t have one. I simply followed the constitutional requirement that if you are qualified to contest an election, it is compulsory for you to serve the nation in the capacity that you won an election.”

  • I didn’t violate the Constitution by skipping NYSC, says Shittu

    The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, has said that he had not violated the Constitution by not participating in the compulsory one year National Youth Services Corps Scheme (NYSC).

    The minister stated this while speaking with newsmen on Friday in Abuja, arguing that his case could not be compared to that of the former Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun.

    The minister who is one of the All Progressives Congress(APC) governorship aspirants in Oyo State, spoke after being interviewed by the APC screening committee.

    The media had been awash with reports that the minister did not participate in the mandatory one year NYSC program after his graduation from the University in 1978. The compulsory NYSC programme began in 1973.

    Former minister of finance, Adeosun resigned last week Friday following allegations that she forged the NYSC exemption certificate.

    Shittu stressed that whereas the former Minister of Finance submitted a fake NYSC exemption certificate, he didn’t obtain any certificate.

    He added that he considered his service at the Oyo State Assembly as, “a higher service”. He said that he had not infringed on any law in the country’s Constitution by skipping NYSC.

    “Nigerian Tribune even reported that I left University in 1979, but in actual sense , I left in 1978 and left Law School in 1979.

    “And the Constitution says anyone who qualifies to contest an election or who has gone through an election and wins, he is obligated to move through the House of Assembly which I did for four years.

    “So it is a form of higher service as far as I’m concerned, and even now, I am still in service.

    “I don’t think I have violated the law except someone has a superior argument and can prove it,”the minister said.

    He stressed that his case was not like that of Adeosun, because according to him, there are differences.

    “Unfortunately, Kemi had a fake certificate, I didn’t present any, I didn’t have one.

    “I simply followed the constitutional requirement that if you are qualified to contest an election, it is compulsory for you to serve the nation in the capacity that you won an election,”he said.(NAN)

  • Why i didn’t present NYSC certificate – Communication Minister

    Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu said on Friday that he never presented any NYSC discharge certificate during his screening by the National Assembly because he never had any, stressing that he has not breached any law by skipping national service.

    The Minister who spoke with newsmen at the private office of the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole where the screening of governorship aspirants is taking place said his case of not having a discharge certificate was different from that of former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.

    Shittu acknowledged that he never went for the mandatory national youth service after his graduation from the Nigeria Law School in 1979, adding that he simply followed the law and considered his election into the State house of Assembly as part of national service.

    He said: “Nigerian Tribune even reported that I left university in 1979 but in actual sense , I left in 1978 and left law school in 1979 and the constitution says anyone who qualifies to contest an election or who has gone through an election and wins, he is obligated to move through the house of assembly which I did for four years, so it is a form of higher service as far as I’m concerned and even now, I am still in service.”

    Read Also: Certificate scandal: Court dismisses case against Adeleke

    Asked whether he not violated any law by not going for national service, he said “I don’t see and I’m not worried. Do you see any worry on my face? I don’t think I’m have infringed any law except someone has a superior argument and prove it.

    Speaking on Kemi Adeosun, he said “there are walls of difference. Unfortunately, Kemi had a fake certificate, I didn’t present any, I didn’t have one. I simply followed the constitutional requirement that if you are qualified to contest an election, it is compulsory for you to serve the nation in the capacity that you won an election”.

    An online newspaper, Premium Times has reported that the Minister did not present himself for service after graduation and is yet to do so till date.

  • Adeosun and the elephant in the room

    SIR: Former finance minister, Ms Kemi Adeosun, may have been caught out but no one is mentioning the elephant in the room, which is the rather wasteful NYSC programme. NYSC is a waste of time and I wasn’t expecting her to put her fairly successful career on hold for one whole year in order to be able to work in Nigeria. The right thing for her to have done would have being to decline the offer to work in Nigeria as many foreign trained Nigerians have always done.

    Expecting people like Adeosun or other foreign trained Nigerian graduates to reject good job offers in the U.K. or USA or quit their job and return to Nigeria to do a one year wasteful “service” is naive at best and foolish at worst — it is unrealistic and will never happen.

    Now, I wonder how many twenty-something year old Computer Science graduates in the U.K., for example, would be willing to turn down a (£25,000 – £35,000 a year salary) Graduate Software Engineer role from IBM to return to Nigeria to spend one whole year wearing khaki and taking pictures with pretty girls and fine looking men in the first three weeks and then proceed to spend a whole year at an unproductive office filled with very unproductive people, while people their age around the world are working on exciting projects and developing the next big thing. Maybe zero.

    What about very experienced professionals who wish to return to Nigeria to work? How many of them are willing to quit their job to return to Nigeria to waste one year being unproductive when they could have stayed back and carry on their research on how to help find the cure for malaria or cancer or Type II Diabetes?

    Yes, NYSC was a brilliant idea but that was in the 1970s and this 2018. As always, we are too lazy to revisit things and see how they can be updated to reflect modern times.

    Most of our schools’ curricula are still the way the British colonisers left them and not enough has been done to update them to reflect our reality as Africans. Many educated Nigerians, for example, still think Mungo Park discovered the River Niger and kids in the village are still reciting “A is Apple” even though they’ve never seen an apple tree or the fruit before. What happened to “A is for Abuja, Aba or Akara?”

    We need innovation in all areas, including governance. Someone not having an NYSC certificate shouldn’t be a barrier for them to work and contribute to the success of their country. Because something was beneficial in 1970 doesn’t mean it will be in 2018. NYSC needs to be checked again and difficult questions need to be asked: is it still important? And should we be losing great Nigerian first class brains to other countries because of their lack of a mere NYSC certificate?

    Remember, in all of these, the real loser is Nigeria.

     

    • Suleiman Ahmed,

    Watford, UK.

  • NYSC explores new strategies for credible mobilisation process

    The Director General of the National Youth Service Corps ( NYSC ), Brig.-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure said efforts were on towards evolving strategies to ensure credibility of mobilisation process.

    Kazaure dropped the hint on Thursday in Enugu during the 2018 Batch ‘C’ Pre-mobilisation Workshop.

    The director general was represented by the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Mrs Victoria Okakwu.

    He said that the scheme was constantly faced with new challenges due to the changing times and the management saddled with the responsibility of improving performances.

    He said that such challenges had made it imperative for stakeholders to regularly meet to exchange ideas for the improvement of their respective roles.

    Kazaure said that the workshop would also dwell on issues aimed at correcting observed lapses as well as chart a new way forward for the scheme.

    “The pre-mobilisation workshop has remained a vital platform for stakeholders in the scheme to interact and come up with strategies for credible mobilisation through appraisal of our performances in previous exercises.

    “It is my firm belief that this workshop will proffer sustainable solutions to these challenges,” Kazaure said.

    Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State said that the current situation in the country had made it imperative to expand the frontiers of the scheme.

    Ugwuanyi, who was represented by the Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Chief Josef Udedi, said that the state government would continue to support the ideals of the NYSC.

    “There is no doubt that the scheme has come a long way in the 45 years of its existence. It gladdens my heart to note that the NYSC has lived up to the expectations of its founding fathers,” Ugwuanyi said.

    The Director, Corps Mobilisation, Mrs Nnnenna Ukonu, said that the workshop was basically aimed at reviewing the performances of previous mobilisation exercises.

    Ukonu said that such review was done through cross-fertilisation of ideas with stakeholders, identifying challenges and proffering solutions to them.

    She said that the management of the scheme was determined to at all times ensure a seamless, hitch-free and a mobilisation process devoid of irregularities.

    The theme of the workshop was “Evolving Strategies to Overcome New Challenges in the NYSC Mobilisation Process.

    The workshop was attended by representatives of corps producing institutions, the National Universities Commission, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and others.

  • Anambra Flooding: No cause for alarm, says NYSC

    The National Youth Service Corps (  NYSC) has said that there was no cause for alarm over the safety of corps members posted to serve in the areas affected by flooding in Anambra.

    The Coordinator of the NYSC in Anambra, Mr Kehinde Aremu, gave the assurance to corps members and Nigerians in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Awka.

    Aremu said the scheme had asked employers who requested for Corps members to go to the various Local Government Headquarters for proper documentation of acceptance process.

    He disclosed that those already serving in the affected places had been directed to move upland for about one week, when the water must have receded.

    “We have told all the employers to come to the local government secretariat and liaise with the Local Government Inspectors, so that they will do the virtual acceptance of all the corps members.

    “The process of permission asking and taking, has taken place and they have been granted permission to go and gird up their loins for the service year.

    Read Also: Flood: FG approves N3bn to respond, mitigate disaster

    “We expect that in about one week’s time when the water must have receded according to predictions, they will be back.

    “The corps members have been received and accepted by their employers in Ogbaru, Anambra East, Anambra West, Anyamelum, Awka North, and parts of Onitsha.

    “We have not allowed them to go to the flooded areas,” he said.

    Aremu said the measure was a reaction to the declaration of the areas as flood disaster areas by National Emergency Management Agency and closure of most schools in those places.

    “NYSC is very caring. We are as concerned as parents and guardians because we are their parents here.

    “We have done what we ought to have done to ensure their safety, so there is no cause for alarm.

  • Lagos NYSC boss appeals for new camp

    The Lagos State Coordinator for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Prince Mohammed Momoh, has appealed to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to make good his promise of a new orientation camp.

    Speaking at the closing of the 2018 Batch ‘B’ stream II orientation programme at the NYSC Orientation Camp, Iyana Ipaja on Monday, Momoh thanked the governor for allocating a land in Agbowa, Ikorodu, to the scheme but pleaded for the completion of paperwork on the land as well as erection of a befitting structure.

    In an interview with reporters, he said the NYSC had a design that could accommodate up to 7,000 corps members on the new land – waiting from when the government would give the go-ahead for work to begin.

    Momoh said: “We are networking with government and we have gone ahead to commission a team of very dedicated crop of professionals who have developed and designed a 7,000-capacity orientation camp and this having been submitted to the state government for consideration and adoption, and we are aware that the surveyor general of the state is also trying to perfect the paper for the land. You know one thing is to say this land is proposed for this, and another thing is for the perfection of the paper.  We believe that soon we would get good news.”

    Though seeking new facilties, Momoh thanked the government for putting the present camp in good condition for use.

    “The present facility is more conducive than it used to be. We thank his Excellency but because of space constraints there is no way you can expand it. I equally wish to put on record that I know the state government is also aware and they are trying their best to see what can be done very soon because Lagos happen to be the only state in the whole Southwest that does not have a permanent orientation camp and this position those not befit a mega city that has the status of Lagos.

    In his speech, Ambode, who was represented by the commissioner for special duties and inter-governmental relations, Oluseye Oladejo, corps members to master skills that would qualify them for government loans.

    “I therefore admonish you to take your post camp training seriously to master the requisite skills that will qualify you to access loans through the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund”. This trust fund is set up to enable youths to start their businesses,” he said.

    A total of 2,152 corps members participated in the three-week programme which exposed them to paramilitry drills, martial ars, Man ‘O’ War drills, various lectures, skills acquisiong training and inter-platoon competitions.

    Popular musician, David Adeleke is serving with the batch but was not in camp for the closing ceremony.  When asked about his whereabouts, Momoh declined comments.

    Davido, as he is called, posted on the internet last Friday that he was cutting short his U.S. tour to return to Nigeria for the NYSC programme.  But he did not return to camp.

  • Aregbesola advises corpers to resist being used for rigging

    Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun on Monday advised corps members in the state to resist being used for rigging by politicians, in the Sept. 22 gubernatorial election.

    Aregbesola gave the advice at the closing /terminal parade of the orientation course for the 2018 Batch B Stream II corps members, at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) permanent orientation camp in Ede, Osun.

    The governor, who was represented on the occasion by Mrs Folakemi Adegboyega, Commissioner for Employment and Youth Engagement, said it was necessary to continue to admonish the corps members, especially those who would be engaged as ad-hoc staff for the election.

    Aregbesola advised them to be neutral and should not betray the trust reposed in them.

    “You all have been rightly informed during the swearing-in ceremony of your role in the forthcoming election in the state.

    “Ensure to abide by the advice which came to you through seasoned officers of the scheme and its collaborating agencies, when you are called upon for participation in the election process in the course of your service year.

    “Shun violence and corruption, ensure that the votes of every citizens at the polling units counts and do not allow yourselves to be used by anyone to perpetuate rigging during the process.

    “Remember your family, the scheme, and the nation at large are looking up to you; and so, do not let the trust reposed in you by these people be at naught,” he said.

    Mr Emmanuel Attah, State Coordinator of the NYSC in Osun, in his own address, assured the people of the state and Nigerians that the scheme would continue to play its neutral role in the Nigeria electoral process.

    Attah said the scheme had given credibility to past elections in the country and it intended to maintain it.

    He, however, warned that the NYSC would not take it lightly with any individual or group of persons who attempt to intimidate or harm any corps member (s) in the name of political thuggery.

    Attah advised politicians to stay away and not induce the corps members, adding that they were well-trained and sensitised not to listen or take anything from them under any guise.