Commentary: NYSC, Graduates And The Society

Written By: Levi Obijiofor

Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, stirred public debate last week when he revealed that graduates with questionable academic certificates were participating in the one-year national exercise. He told journalists at a press conference in Abuja, quote: “If I give you some of the write-ups of the graduates, some were told to write ABCD, they could not. They could not say what a bank statement is. If I show you their papers, you will feel sad.”

While that observation might sound hilarious, it represents a serious indictment of higher education in the country, the dodgy and shoddy procedures for admission into universities and polytechnics, the widespread corruption that defines the character of our society, the growing interest in falsification of academic certificates, the frail state of an economy that cannot provide job opportunities for graduates and the extreme state of misery that drives some unemployed youth to participate in the NYSC scheme, even when they are not qualified to serve. 

In essence, certificate forgery is not limited to NYSC members. For instance, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, was embroiled in a certificate scandal and questions about his true age. First, he claimed to have studied at the University of Toronto in Canada, which, he said, conferred him with a degree in Business Administration. The university promptly disowned him and his fake bachelor’s degree.

Again, while he claimed to be 36 years in 1999, his accusers countered that he was born in 1970 and so he could not be 36 years in 1999. The 1999 Constitution stipulated that anyone seeking election into the House of Representatives must attain a minimum age of 30. Salisu apologized and left. Another high-profile politician, Evan(s) Enwerem (the correct spelling of his first name is still disputed), was the Senate President in 1999 when he was accused of not only fabricating his academic credentials but also his name. Although he was eventually removed from office in late 1999, he was never prosecuted before he died in 2007.

These are just two examples. There are many other politicians, who were accused of falsifying their academic qualifications. These scandals reinforce the point that what the NYSC Director-General revealed about fake graduates serving in the scheme is only a tip of a larger problem in society.

It is not only graduates of tertiary institutions who are academically challenged. The knowledge gap that exists among secondary school students is equally disturbing. There are many secondary school students who cannot put together, grammatically, correct and coherent sentences that make sense. There are those who still wrestle with the fundamentals of arithmetic.

The scandal in the NYSC is a reflection of the level of corruption in the country. When impoverished people are desperate to earn a living by any means, they do anything to transform their lives. This is why Nigeria is currently experiencing higher than usual rates of crime. They include abductions, premeditated murders, embezzlement of government property and money, illegal drug trafficking, and persistence of sharp practices such as the notorious financial crime known as “419.”

In our current environment, when the youth look for role models, they see criminals and politicians exchanging roles. When people dream of a bright future, they wake up to see darkness and their lives wrapped in misery. When people go to church to listen to the word of God, they hear sermons dominated by talk about sowing regular seeds that leave them even more indigent and ruined than they expected.

Our society has been messed up beyond redemption. It has fostered a culture of cheating. Everywhere you look, you find that nearly everyone is trying to cheat the system. Students cheat. Parents cheat. Lawyers cheat. Journalists cheat. Religious leaders cheat. Traditional rulers cheat. Senior public servants cheat. Workers cheat. Businessmen and women cheat. Market women and men cheat. Other professional groups are not spotless. We live in a society in which high moral character or integrity is no longer valued. All these must change for a better society.