Youth
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The management of the National Youth Service Corps has been criticised for introducing a new policy that will make prospective corps members to pay N4000 for online registration. The policy is supposed to make the registration process more efficient and effective
| By Vincent Nzemeke | Oct. 13, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
THESE are trying times for the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC. The security challenges in the country and funding problem is bringing to bear on the operations of the 40 year organisation which is the symbol of unity in the Nigeria. Unlike in the past, when the passing out ceremonies of corps members are greeted with fanfare, in June this year, members of the 2013 Batch B set ended their one year national service quietly. The passing out ceremony was called off in all states of the federation due to concern over the safety of corps members especially those in the northern part of the country where Boko Haram insurgency is endemic.
The dust had not settled on the issue of the aborted passing out ceremony when news filtered in that the NYSC was planning to introduce yet another controversial policy. The management of the scheme recently announced an online registration policy which would require prospective corps members to part with the sum of N4, 000 before obtaining their call up letters.
Unveiling the new online registration policy, Brigadier-General Johnson Olawumi, director-general of the scheme, explained that there have been lots of irregularities ranging from mobilisation of unqualified person into the national service. He added that there were practices that are unfavourable to the corps members which needed to be eliminated. They include lack of proper record of mobilised persons, excruciating registration experiences in camps for both corps members and officials, extortion of corps members when corps members go to collect their call up letters or from the fake officials, fake age by corps members, and unauthorised mobilisation of students from unaccredited courses among others.
According to him, the new policy was borne out of the need to curb irregularities, end the suffering and stress of corps members before camp, while in camp and during their service year and as well as get NYSC to be digitally compliant “because that is the trend now.” The NYSC director general also disclosed that the management also engaged the services of Messers Sidmach technologies Nigeria Limited to manage the operations of the policy under a public-private partnership arrangement.
Another benefit of the new policy is that it will eradicate long queues as the registration of corp members will now be automated. For instance, upon resumption at their various orientation camps, corps members who subscribe to the policy are expected to present a digital call up letter which will be swiped on the system alongside the individual’s thumbprint. When that is done the data of the corp member will be displayed and an identity card will also be produced immediately as against the usual practice of queuing up all day just to register and get an identity card.
But despite the long list of benefits reeled out by Olawumi, the N4, 000 fee which intending corps members are required to pay is what has triggered a fresh controversy. At the presentation of the new policy, Olawumi said that the charge was for the acquisition and maintenance of infrastructures needed for the exercise. He said the infrastructure included the computer systems which have to be deployed to all state offices in the country including the NYSC headquarters and the 774 local government areas where corps members would be deployed to for their primary assignment.
Many prospective corps members, parents and other members of the society who have responded to the development describe it as an exploitative plot. Some of them posited that since corps members are embarking on a national assignment, they should not be asked to part with some money.
Anthony Madubuike, a civil servant in Abuja, is not in support of the fee. According to him, the scheme can fund the project if they want to because they have other sources where they get funds from such as the NYSC foundation scheme. He said parents shouldn’t be over burdened with fund the project indirectly.
Also, Adebayo Fatoberu, a prospective corps members said NYSC can improve its efficiency without necessarily asking fresh graduates to pay. “I don’t support what they are doing because many graduates are not working. We are asking them to increase the small allowance they pay every month and they are asking us to pay N4000 for call up letters again.”
Cynthia Dibie, a corps member serving in Ondo state, said other than asking prospective members to pay, engaging a technology firm is also an embarrassment for the NYSC. She said: “They have an Information Technology unit, why should they be engaging a private company and asking would be corps members to pay? If it is true that they are only interested in making the scheme more efficient, then they should simply improve their in-house IT department.”
Piqued by the criticism that greeted the announcement, NYSC announced that the online registration it introduced for the mobilisation of corps members is meant to eradicate the problems that graduates pass through in obtaining call-up letters from their institutions.
The management also announced that the policy was optional and that those who could not afford it could still get their call up latters through the usual ways. Olubunmi Aderibigbe, NYSC’s board spokesperson, in a statement last week, said the initiative was also made to save potential corps members from untimely death that could be occasioned by the security challenges in some states. She also argued that the process would prevent the forgery of call up letters.
Aderibigbe said, “The attention of the board of the NYSC has been drawn to some reports which suggest a misunderstanding of the online registration for the mobilisation of corps members and the rationale behind it. We hasten to say that the whole idea is not only noble but is indeed designed in the best interest of the corps members.
“Given the security challenge in some states of the federation and the observed cumbersome process of collection of call-up letters in most institutions, the idea was conceived to remove all impediments that make the mobilisation process a nightmare for the graduates. We saw no need why any graduate should have to travel hundreds of kilometres with all the associated risks, just to collect his or her call-up letter. By registering online, the idea that any unscrupulous official could make the process of collection of call-up letter difficult for corps members will also be eliminated.”
Aderibigbe added that the scheme would afford foreign trained Nigerian graduates to have a seamless opportunity to participate in national service as the barrier of distance had been eliminated. “The online registration will also create a more reliable platform for storage and retrieval of data for participating graduates, removal of the excruciating registration experiences in camps for both corps members and officials, provision of back-up services for the NYSC Integrated system and provision of Web-based NYSC Integrated System Software covering prospective corps members registration, mobilisation, deployment and the provision of web-based finger-print software interface for verification,” she added.
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