Education Minister Asks NYSC To Mobilise Nigerian Polytechnic Graduates Initially Excluded From National Service
The minister made the confirmation on Friday during his visit to the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State, in the Yaba area of Lagos State, after SaharaReporters’ story on the exclusion of the graduates and students by the NYSC.
The Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, has assured the graduates and students from various polytechnics in Nigeria who were excluded from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) mobilisation for the mandatory one-year national service over part-time studies that he has approved a memo to the NYSC Director-General for their mobilisation.
The minister made the confirmation on Friday during his visit to the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State, in the Yaba area of Lagos State, after SaharaReporters’ story on the exclusion of the graduates and students by the NYSC.
Alausa, however, asked the graduates, students of the college and Nigerian youths in general to desist from publishing and posting negative narratives about Nigeria on social media.
He claimed that American and British youths would not post negative narratives about their countries.
SaharaReporters had reported that graduates and students from various polytechnics in Nigeria, under the umbrella of Concerned Higher National Diploma (HND) Graduates/Students, expressed their frustration and rejection of their exclusion from the NYSC mobilisation for the mandatory one-year national service.
They had expressed their distress that the recently introduced policy, which disqualifies graduates who completed their ND on a part-time basis and then proceeded to full-time HND programs from participating in the NYSC scheme, had left them stranded and devastated.
The affected graduates stated that they had written to the NBTE, which, in turn, wrote to the Director-General of the NYSC in a letter dated January 8, 2024, requesting that the graduates be mobilised for service.
The NBTE, in the letter signed by its Executive Secretary, Prof. Idris M. Bugaje, had explained that the reason for the non-mobilisation of polytechnic graduates for national service is specifically based on ND status, not full-time HND programmes.
During the education minister’s visit to the Yaba College of Technology on Friday, a section of the affected graduates and students who approached him with placards with various inscriptions protesting over their exclusion, reminded the minister all the efforts they had made concerning the matter.
Addressing them, the minister said, “Before I address your concern, I also have something to tell you.
“I want you to be good patriotic citizens of this country. There is a lot of negativity that your age group say about our country. We have a very good country.
“I have lived abroad and I live in Nigeria now. Nigeria is a great country. We should be proud of our country. Stop being negative about our country, and I want to use you to send that message out to your other colleagues and other citizens of Nigeria.
“About your part-time ND and full-time HND and not letting you do youth service, I can tell you that I’m fully aware of it, and I’m on top of it.
“The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Executive Secretary is also with you, and I’m also with you. I don’t see any reason why you should be disenfranchised from doing youth service.
“I asked the Director General of the NYSC to come and meet with me in my office in another two weeks. I can assure you that this will be resolved.”
During a brief interactive session with the management, unions and students of the institution, the minister added that he has approved a memo to the NYSC DG to mobilise the aggrieved graduates for service.
He said, “There is no reason you must not be allowed to serve. The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education wrote to me. I have approved a memo to the NYSC DG to mobilize you people for service.
I have also scheduled the NYSC DG to meet with me in the next two weeks. You must be allowed to serve.”
The affected graduates had also appealed to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and the National Assembly to intervene and ensure the immediate reversal of the policy and their mobilisation.
They had urged the National Assembly to direct the NYSC to mobilise affected polytechnic graduates with Batch A, Stream 1, 2025, in line with their HND qualifications.
