It’s no longer news that graduates of the universities of Ibadan, Nsukka and Benson Idohosa are expelled from the NYSC orientation camps across the country whenever orientation courses are ongoing.
In 2019, a friend of mine who did his one-year mandatory service in Yobe state shared with me a painful story. He said a corps member from Lagos state was expelled from the camp because of a minor mistake found in her result which made her university. The problem was that her result did not indicate the day of graduation; it had the month and the year only, which is contrary to the NYSC certificate alignment.
Similarly, The Punch newspaper identified four victims of the same problem on November 10, 2022. The corp members were not allowed to participate in the swearing in ceremony after having travelled to the camps from their various states of origin in order to serve their fatherland.
The identified victims were Ana Bola Oluyimika, a graduate of UI, from Lagos state, Abiodun, a graduate of UI from Ogun state, Chioma from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, an indigene of Oyo state. One painful thing was, all of them were stranded when they were chased away from the orientation camps.
Meanwhile, the NYSC officials had for several years appealed to the over 300 institutions in Nigeria to guarantee the arrangement of their prospective corps members’ data, including date of graduation to tally with the NYSC’s date alignment.
Though, according to the reports, the registrars of the affected institutions debunked the claim, I think there is a need to investigate the matter with a view to unravel the truth. Graduates are affected whenever an orientation course is taking place. This implies that something is wrong somewhere, no matter how the registrars try to refute the report.
Finally, we urge the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Benson Idohosa University to urgently do something to stop jeopardising the lives of their graduates while attending the mandatory one-year national service.
Mohammed Yusuf,
Department of Mass Communication,
Borno State University.
