NYSC admits sleuth reporter Audu participated twice in scheme undetected
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
“Cotonou degree” scam buster, journalist Umar Audu, participated in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2019 and repeated mobilisation undercover in 2023, the NYSC has admitted after self-discovery of its porous database.
Audu changed his email address and phone number to breach the system, NYSC Public Affairs Director Eddy Megwa disclosed on Channels Television on Thursday.
“It is not that we don’t have checks and balances in place to detect possible breaches of the system,” he said.
“When the undercover reporter first put in his data, the system rejected him because he had served in the scheme before. He later changed his email address and his phone number which made the system accept him and he was initially posted to Osun State.
“He did that because he was out for a particular purpose. We are looking at the situation and ensure that it does not happen again.
“We don’t have a database of graduates to serve in the scheme. We only rely on the lists sent to us by the Senates of the various universities, stating the number of graduates to expect from them.”
Megwa said the National Identification Number (NIN) has been in use for three years and wondered why the discrepancies in Audu’s personal information on the NIN database hosted by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
According to him, what was provided for Audu’s second mobilisation was not enough for the NYSC to detect he had previously participated in the programme.
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People with fake degrees can’t write a simple essay
Megwa disclosed part of measures being taken the NYSC to determine whether people with foreign certificates qualify for the scheme.
“It is not our duty to assess their certificates, but we have resorted to inviting foreign students and giving them test to know their abilities.
“In the course of doing that, we have made startling discoveries. Ask some of them to write a simple essay, you will be surprised at what you get. I have some of such materials that I can show you.
“[The] NYSC is an elite scheme, not for illiterates and the means of communication is English language.
“In 2006, the then DG of NYSC, Brigadier General Yusuf Momoh, went to an orientation camp and asked a supposed corps member the title of his final project, the answer he gave was incredulous, and further investigation revealed that his name was smuggled into the list of graduates from a particular university.”
Megwa said the NYSC is partnering with the Federal Ministry of Education, Foreign Affairs Ministry, and other agencies to track people going for foreign studies and when they return with their certificates.
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