The Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, on Thursday warned that any corps member and corps producing institutions caught in any deceptive practices would be prosecuted henceforth.
Olawumi gave the warning in Owerri at the opening of the 2016 Batch ‘A’ Pre- Mobilisation workshop, with the theme: “The Role of Stakeholders in Sustaining the Gains of NYSC Computerised Process.”
The director-general said that issues arising from e-mobilisation process had revealed some irregularities which must be brought to public notice.
He said the issues include: corps members’ registration by proxy, falsification of medical and marriage documents, prospective corps members providing false information to manipulate their posting.
“Let me hereby warn that henceforth these deceptive practices will no longer be condoned and any prospective corps member and corps producing institutions caught will be prosecuted,’’ he said.
He added that the practice of parents requesting for concessional postings for their children on health or marital grounds when such information was not provided during the on-line registration exercise would not be accepted.
He said the workshop provided opportunity for NYSC management and the stakeholders in the mobilization process to review the past mobilisation activities.
He said it will help to find solution to the challenges encountered during the process.
He said the idea was initiated to ensure that the mobilisation of our youths for the mandatory one year national service is stress free and of high integrity.
Olawumi added that the computerisation of the NYSC in 2014 made registration at the NYSC camps, also the prospective corps members were saved from the stress, danger and cost of distant travels to their institutions to collect call-up letters.
And importantly, the computerisation programme has made the NYSC mobilisation process a credible and transparent process by eliminating the issues of ghost or fake corps members.
Olawumi said despite the achievements of the computerized process the advantages of the initiative could only be sustained if individual stakeholders play their roles effectively.
He made a plea to Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo for speedy completion of the permanent orientation camp of the NYSC in the state.
He said the state had been the leading corps producing state in the country.
Responding, Okorocha commended the management of the NYSC for organising the workshop.
He said the scheme must be encouraged because of the peace and unity it had brought to the nation.
The Governor said job has shifted from the conventional civil servants job to the more skilled area and NYSC is the better place to get the youths to be involved in skilled labour for sustenance.
The Director, Corps Mobilisation Department of the NYSC, Mr Anthony Ani, said the workshop would provide an opportunity for assessing the rate of implementation of the resolutions of previous mobilisation workshops.
He said it would also review the past mobilisation exercise, identify challenges and proffer water-tight solutions with a view to achieve an error free mobilisation process.
Ani said that the knowledge-gap between the Students Affairs Officers and the Data Entry Officers in previous mobilisation, led to unexplainable errors.
According to him, the meeting with the deployment and relocation officers will also be an integral aspect of the workshop.
