NYSC N4, 000 MOBILISATION FEE, CRIMINAL EXPLOITATION OF THE UNEMPLOYED –NGOS

NYSC CORP MEMBERS

Some non-governmental organisations have described the N4, 000 online registration fee to be paid by prospective National Youth Service Corp members as exploitation.

The Director, Corps Mobilisation, Anthony Ani, recently disclosed on a radio programme that corps members will now pay N4, 000 to download their call-up letters online.

Mr. Ani explained that the N4, 000 online registration fee was introduced so as to stop fresh graduates from traveling back to their various schools to pick up the letters.

The spokesperson of the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement, Samson Itodo, said the fee was preposterous.

“I think it’s quite unfortunate that NYSC can ask jobless youth, who just came out of the university, to pay N4000. What is this country doing to young people? What is the country doing for its citizens? Why do we have to pay for technological services? It’s totally unacceptable.

“It shows that we have an insensitive administration that does not have the interest of the Nigerian people at heart. What has the NYSC done to enhance the potentials of people who are willing to design applications free of charge? The explanation given by NYSC is so flimsy and is totally exploitative, which is not acceptable to us and we think they should reverse it,” Mr. Itodo said.

The Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, expressed his disappointment over the issue, calling it a criminal act.

“It’s part of the corruption in this country and I call it extortion from fresh graduates who struggled to see themselves through school. They do not have a sustainable reason to ask the corps members to pay N4,000; people who are jobless, who just came out of the university. I call it criminal extortion and we are not in support of it and it must be stooped,” Mr. Rafsanjani said.

A human rights lawyer, Suraj Olanrewaju, said the NYSC should have a functional email through which call-up letters could be sent to graduates.

“What of students who reside in the state where the schools are located? What excuse do you have for those? If I may ask, are the students complaining? If they pay the so-called N4000, will they not still travel back to get their certificates or will they not still travel for the primary deployment? As long as we fold our arms and keep quiet, this criminal act will continue to go on,” Mr. Olanrewaju said