Thousands of fresh Higher National Diploma graduates in Nigeria have been thrown into confusion over their current plights in the hands of the Federal Government which has now excluded them from participating in the mandatory one-year national youth service scheme.

The polytechnic graduates noted that they were surprised to discover that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a federal government paramilitary organisation, which is in charge of the scheme, now denied them registration just because they did their ND programs as part-time students.

They said this development was not only strange but alien to the NYSC scheme since its inception 53 years ago.

The young graduates based on this development went on peaceful protest in Lagos early this month when they discovered that their mates who had both their ND and HND programs on full-time were being mobilised for the current Batch ‘C’ Stream 2, 2024 scheme across the country.

They went to Lagos State secretariat of NYSC in Surulere to register their concern and urged the organisation as well as President Bola Tinubu to look into their matter and mobilize them for service without further delay as their mates have been directed to report to camps for their three-week orientation course.

They said they were baffled that NYSC could deny them registration despite they had already regularised their admission with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which issued them admission letters as direct entry students for their HND programmes in the years of their admissions.

During the Lagos protest, the Lagos State Coordinator of NYSC, Mrs. Salwang Christiana, addressed the protesters, most of whom were from Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos, through a representative Ehimuenma Itoha, an Assistant Director. She pacified them and assured them that NYSC leadership in Abuja was looking into their matter and would communicate with them as soon as possible.

When the students now waited for many days and observed nothing positive was coming forth as a response from the NYSC headquarters and that the registration for mobilisation was almost closed, they sent a six-man representative to Abuja last week for direct conversation with the NYSC leadership.

One of them on the trip, Mr. Kayode Timileyin, narrated their experience when enquiry was made by the Nigerian Tribune on the latest about their concern.

He said, “We went to Abuja last week and met with the Director-General of NYSC, who told us that NYSC is not responsible for our not being mobilised for service but our school and NBTE, which regulates polytechnic education in the country.

“He said once YABATECH for example, sends our list to the organization, NYSC will attend to us.

“We were surprised to hear NYSC boss exonerating the organization from the trouble and we then went to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) where we were told we are qualified for service and that our concern had already been officially tabled with the NYSC leadership justifying why we should be mobilised for service.

“The NBTE even showed us a letter written to the NYSC DG to explain that the only consideration to qualify fresh polytechnic graduates for national service is HND and not ND since inception of the scheme.

“We were also informed by the NBTE to have escalated the matter to the House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnic Education and other relevant stakeholders with the advice to resolve the matter amicably without delay.

“So, we were confused more at this point. But we didn’t stop here as we equally went to the Federal Ministry of Youths and Development as well as the Federal Ministry of Education to register our concerns.

“At the Ministry of Youths and Development, we met with the Chief of Staff of the minister, who on his part, expressed surprise to hear about this development as it seemed strange to him.

“Truly, it is a strange development as the practice before our set was that only graduates, who have both their ND and HND programmes on part-time were exempted officially from national service and issued Exemption Letters by the NYSC while those whose ND programs were on part-time and HND in full-time, like us, were participated in the scheme since inception.

“So, why would our own be different from those who graduated before us? In YABATECH alone, we have up to 4,000 graduates affected by this development and one can imagine how large our number will be nationwide.

“We too want to participate in the national service. It is our dream since we gained admission to school to do so.

“For me, I have done with my studies since February, last year, and waiting for national service and now telling me a different story.

“So, now, we are confused on this matter. We have gone round and tried our best with no positive response.

“The only thing we can say now is appeal to the DG of NYSC and President Bola Tinubu to consider our concern and mobilise us to join our mates in camp for service,” Timileyin pleaded. (Nigerian Tribune)