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| Brig-General Ibrahim |
Keynote
address by the Director-General, NYSC, Brig-General S. Ibrahim DSS PhD MTRCN,
at the Business Session of the 2019 Batch ‘B’ Pre-Mobilisation Workshop held on
Tuesday May 28, 2019, in the Auditorium of Merit House Maitama, Abuja.
Protocol
It
is my pleasure to welcome you all to the business session of the 2019 Batch ‘B’
Pre-mobilisation Workshop. This workshop is unique in some respects. For one,
it is the first of its kind that I am addressing in my capacity as the Director-General
of NYSC. It therefore, provides opportunity for me to interact and exchange
ideas with you as crucial stakeholders in the mobilisation process.
Secondly, this workshop has the
arduous task of proffering solutions to the numerous problems facing the
mobilisation process despite our continued efforts at entrenching data
credibility. As we are all aware, the rising number of Corps Producing Institutions
with the attendant rise in Corps population poses a great challenge which we
must address.
The Pre-Mobilisation Workshop
has always served as the platform for appraising our performance in the previous
mobilisation exercise with a view to eliminating identified lapses and evolving
workable strategies to overcome recurrent challenges. It is against this
background that I consider the theme of this workshop, “Achieving Greater
Efficiency in the NYSC Mobilisation Process: The Role of Stakeholders” apt
and timely. The task before us is to bring our wealth of experience to bear as
we explore ways of improving the process. We must therefore, discharge our
respective responsibilities diligently to ensure greater efficiency in the forthcoming
mobilisation exercise.
The NYSC Act provides for
effective liaison with Corps Producing Institutions who are critical
stakeholders in the mobilisation of Corps members for national development. As head
of a new administration, I have resolved to pursue with vigour, the laudable
goals and objectives of the Scheme. Accordingly, I am committed to strengthening
the existing collaboration with all stakeholders and pursuing a technologically-driven
organisation to deepen effective service delivery.
Let me seize this opportunity
to commend you for your commitment and cooperation over the years. I need not
emphasise the importance of our partnership in ensuring efficiency in the
mobilisation process. It is my hope therefore, that we will continue to explore
ways of strengthening the collaboration in order to achieve better outcomes.
Permit me at this juncture, to highlight
a few of the key issues which will form the basis of our discussion at this
forum.
Late
Upload of Senate/Academic Board Approved Master List on the NYSC Portal.
It
has been observed that Students’ Affairs Officers do not commence early upload
of their master lists despite the long period the NYSC portal is opened for
this purpose. Many wait till few days to the close of the portal before rushing
to meet up with the deadline, thereby making a lot of mistakes in the process. Students’
Affairs Officers are therefore, enjoined to commence early collation of the
approved list of their graduates even before the NYSC portal is opened for
upload.
Checking
unwholesome practices by some Corps Producing Institutions (CPIs)
We
observed cases of suspected connivance whereby some accredited institutions
help unaccredited ones to mobilise unqualified graduates. While the Scheme will
continue to sanction erring institutions, we are working on introducing a platform
on the NYSC portal, where Corps Producing Institutions will be required to upload
the list of their matriculated students every year. This will be used to illuminate
the registration of persons whose names are presented for mobilisation but are
not found on the matriculation list.
Ineffective
Use of the Registrar’s Module
We
created a module for the registrars to confirm the data and documents uploaded
by their Data Entry Officers and Students’ Affairs Officers in order to stop
illegal upload. However, the full benefits of the Registrar’s Module are yet to
be felt as it is not effectively used by some Corps Producing Institutions. In some
cases, login access code of the Registrar is compromised. The Registrars are
therefore, expected to play their role in the mobilisation process by making
effective use of the module and safeguarding their login access codes.
Lack
of Attendance to Requests for Name Correction
Despite
the introduction of online name correction module since 2018 Batch ‘B’
mobilisation, it has been observed that some Students’ Affairs Officers still
engage in old practice of sending to the NYSC, offline recommendations of
applications that are done online. In many cases, the SAOs do not respond to their
graduates’ applications for name correction on their handle. This attitude has
subjected the affected graduates to a lot of difficulties during registration
on camp and hardship in operating bank accounts for payment of allowances. In addition,
it results in the printing of wrong names on the Certificate of National Service/Exemption
Certificate. Students’ Affairs Officers must be alive to their responsibilities
by ensuring daily check of their dashboards to clear pending cases of name
correction/addition/removal.
Admission
of Candidates with Poor Foundation Certificates for Higher National Diploma (HND)
Programmes
Our
effort to ascertain the credibility of HND certificates tendered for registration
at the Orientation Camps by cross-checking with the National Diploma
certificates obtained before admission to HND programmes exposed the non-adherence
to admission requirements by some institutions. Many institutions were found
to have admitted candidates with University Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas,
Polytechnic Diplomas and even NCE for HND programmes as against the National Diploma
Certificate. NYSC will henceforth report such erring institutions to the National
Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for appropriate sanctions.
Age
Falsification
We
have also observed that some CPIs present over-aged graduates for
mobilisation. Such graduates falsify
their age in order to avoid appearing on their exemption list. Let me state
here that such act will not be condoned, and the Scheme will not hesitate to
apply appropriate sanctions on any CPI involved. As a further step towards
curtailing age falsification, we have decided, just as in the case of WAEC Certificate
and the NYSC Exemption Certificate, to include date of birth on the Certificate
of National Service and Exclusion letter. NYSC also plans to carry out advocacy
to encourage other examination bodies to adopt same approach.
Distinguished
workshop participants, having enumerated these issues for discussion, it is my
ardent hope that we shall improve performance of our roles in the mobilisation
process to achieve greater efficiency. While soliciting your continuous support,
I urge you to use this forum to share ideas on best practices and suggest
solutions to identified challenges.
I
thank you all for your attention.
Culled
from Selected Speeches and Strides of the 18th NYSC
Director-General, Brig-General S. Ibrahim DSS PhD MTRCN
…………………………………………..
NB:
Senseman Publishers’ comment:
Brig-General
Ibrahim’s idea of printing date of birth of corps members on the certificate of national service has
helped in checking age falsification, which
is a common phenomenon in Nigeria’s public service. The DG indirectly
has helped in simplifying the affairs of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by documenting official
ages of their staff. Also, military, paramilitary
and pension managers are all beneficiaries of General
Ibrahim’s reforms.
Next……………………
Welcome
address by the Director-General, NYSC, Brig-General S. Ibrahim DSS PhD MTRCN,
at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Batch ‘B’ Pre-Orientation Course Workshop held at the Event
Centre, CBD, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos State on June 10, 2019.
…………………………..