Officials at the Katsina state camp of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have refused to register some prospective corps members (PCMs) over course specialisation.

The affected PCMs, numbering about 16, graduated from Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Kwara State University (KWASU) and the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA).

Isah Yelwa Tijani, a graduate of counselling psychology with specialisation in economics from IBBU, said he, alongside other eight PCMs from the same school, were being questioned.

“Anyone in the faculty of education in any Nigerian institution must have an elective course which they would take from level one to four as the case may be,” Yelwa said.

In his own case, Yelwa chose economics from his year one till he graduated. “This made the school to put economics as my specialisation,” he said.

The camp officials, the affected PCMs said, would not listen to their explanations. They told them to get another statement of results from their school.

PCMs from UNIABUJA and KWASU experienced the same thing. The affected ones are also graduates of education with various specialisations.

A student of KWASU, who would not want to be named, said the officials are making things hard for them.

“They said we have to get another results void of specialisations from our school,” he grumbled. “And the school said it was not possible to issue two results.”

PARTIALITY

PCMs from University of Maiduguri (UniMaid) whose statements of results came with various specialisations were attended to and cleared, according to Yelwa.

“These same officials cleared a guy who studied adult education and had a specialisation in Public Administration from UniMaid,” he said.

His colleagues would later corroborate his statement. They alleged they were being marginalized.

SITUATION FROM OTHER CAMPS

FIJ learned that graduates of education undergoing their camping experience in other states were cleared despite their specialisations.

PCMs from Jigawa and Lagos State told FIJ they did face such challenges before being registered.

Sadly, the troubled PCMs traveled from various parts of the country to Kastina on February 23. This was confirmed in their call up letters.

“We have been here for more than three days and they are not attending to us,” one of the PCMs said.

They revealed that they have been sleeping in mosques and other available places in the camp.

When contacted, Ahidjo Yahaya, Kastina State NYSC coordinator, said the scheme had contacted the registrar and vice chancellors of the affected schools.

“We have contacted the school to verify their results. Once we are done, they will be attended to,” Yahaya told FIJ.