The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Olakunle Nafiu, has explained why some graduates experience delays in mobilisation for the mandatory national service, citing late submissions by institutions and the refusal of some prospective corps members to report to orientation camps.

Nafiu, a Brigadier – General, made the clarification on Friday in Abuja while marking his one year in office as head of the scheme.

According to him, the NYSC operates a largely automated mobilisation system, and prospective corps members who fail to report to camp after being posted may have to wait until the system clears the current mobilisation pool before they can be reconsidered.

He said, “On several occasions, corps-producing institutions do not upload their Senate-approved lists on our platform in good time.

“In other instances, graduates are mobilised and posted to certain states, but if they are not satisfied with the posting, they refuse to report to the orientation camp.”

He explained that once a graduate fails to report to camp after mobilisation, the automated system temporarily blocks further access to their dashboard until the entire batch in the mobilisation pool has been exhausted.

“For instance, if 500,000 people register in a year and you are mobilised and posted but refuse to go to the orientation camp, the system will not bring up your name again until the pool of 500,000 has been depleted,” he said.

“You will not even have access to your dashboard again. These are some of the issues we face,” the NYSC boss added.

Nafiu also addressed concerns about the safety of corps members, stressing that the scheme has reduced deployments to areas considered high-risk.

The director-general said, “As much as possible, we do not deploy corps members to red zones. You will notice that we have scaled down considerably the number of corps members posted to certain states of the federation.”

He added that where deployments to such states are unavoidable, corps members are restricted to safer locations such as state capitals and major cities.

Nafiu reassured Nigerians that the safety of corps members remains a top priority for the scheme.

He added, “Even when corps members go to such states, they are restricted to state capitals and major cities.

“We are mindful, and we continue to appeal to Nigerians that this is a responsible scheme. We are parents ourselves. Many of us have children who are corps members or have passed through the scheme.”

“We cannot use other people’s children carelessly. We owe the nation and parents the responsibility of securing the lives of their children, and that is what we will continue to do.”

Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, commended the leadership of the scheme for what he described as reforms and people-centred initiatives.

According to the minister, the current leadership of the NYSC has created an atmosphere of collaboration between the agency and the Ministry of Youth Development aimed at improving the lives of young Nigerians.

Olawande said, “Today is special because, for the first time in the history of this country, we are marking the one year in office of a hardworking Director-General, a non-working Army Director-General, with a lot of achievements and focused initiatives.

“Like many people call him, he is the Gen-Z DG, and this is the first time we are having it so good that we can rub minds with both the ministry and the NYSC to see a way forward and how we can really impact the lives of the many young people we have.”

The minister noted that the NYSC continues to impact hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths annually through the national service programme.

He said, “As you know, we have about 480,000 or thereabouts, and these are the young people whose lives we are impacting.

“This has been a year of turning things around to see how productively we can engage and reform these agencies for the betterment of the country. We have a man who listens.”

He described Nafiu as a leader who maintains open communication with both staff and corps members.

“We have a man we even tell to bend his arm down. We have a man who can easily interact with both the staff and the corps members,” he said.

Olawande also highlighted welfare improvements within the NYSC headquarters, including efforts to strengthen healthcare services for staff.

The minister said, “You can see today that one of those priorities has been the welfare of the staff and those working in this headquarters.

“It has been paramount to him to have a working, truly functional clinic because of the welfare of those here.”

While addressing growing concerns about the safety of corps members, especially following a recent viral video alleging the torture of corps members in northern Nigeria, the minister said the government was committed to improving their protection.

“I have said it, and I will keep saying it: we may not be where we want to be, even as a country or as an agency, but we are working towards it and doing everything possible to secure our corps members,” Olawande stated.

He also appealed to corps members to take personal safety seriously by avoiding night travel and movements.

“Please and please do not walk at night; please and please do not travel at night. Even when you get to a destination, and you see the clouds getting darker, just find the nearest military or police station, find the nearest security post, and anywhere you can stay so that you will not walk at night and put a lot of Nigerians into problems,” the minister said.

The minister stressed that incidents such as kidnapping, torture, or harm to corps members were unacceptable.

“We do not want it, and we do not feel it is normal for corps members to be tortured, kidnapped, or have anything bad happen to them,” he said.

Olawande further revealed that the Federal Government had begun putting together measures to reform the NYSC and improve welfare packages for young Nigerians.

He added, “Very soon, even with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we will see what more can be done.

“We have put together plans to transform, reform, and ensure that the welfare regime improves. Even less than a week ago, we got approvals for a lot of things that we should not even put out there yet, but we are doing them and making sure they are implemented.” (The Nation)

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