by Isi Esene
Brig. Gen. Johnson Olawumi, the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has again explained the benefits of charging the sum of N4,000 for online registration.
Olawumi said the charges are in the interest of corps members explaining that it is for the entire package of online registration and “not just for printing call-up letters.”
According to him: “It is not true that corps members are being asked to pay to serve their country, far from it. The NYSC and the government appreciate the enormous sacrifice that corps members have made and continue to make for the unity and the development of this country. The scheme will continue to explore ways to ensure that corps members serve the nation in safety and with ease.
“This latest initiative was conceived in that spirit. Based on feedbacks and requests from past corps members, the initiative was designed to lessen the costs and risks associated with corps members travelling to their schools to pick up call-up letters.
“Paying to process call-up letters online is totally optional. It is not compulsory. NYSC made it optional because of the realisation that not every corps member will need or can afford it.
“As said above, picking up call-up letters from schools have always been and remains the responsibility of prospective corps members. There are associated costs and risks to this, which varies for individuals.
“The is not just for printing call-up letters. It is for the entire package of online registration, which requires the deployment of IT hardware N4,000 are and software and personnel to orientation camps all over the country.
“It also gives those who subscribe to it the advantage of processing their registration online, saving time during registration at the orientation camps and allowing them to use their thumbprints to identify themselves in case they lose or are dispossessed of their call-up letters.
“In the past, corps members who lose or are dispossessed of their call-up letters had to go through a cumbersome process of swearing affidavits, getting validation from their schools which takes time and may force them to enlist on another batch.
“With online registration, those who are unfortunate to lose their letters can identify themselves with their fingerprints. So the N4,000 fee is for the entire process and package of benefits,” he explained.
He explained that the directive was not meant to extort money from prospective corps members adding that it was done with “all sense of fairness and sensitivity.”
How come nobody is mentioning the postal service as another means of communicating with prospective corps members? Is the government confirming that the post office is no longer a reliable means of communication? Is the naira 4000 charge an administrative fee to cover the cost of setting up and operating the corps website. Is the fee a charge to cover the cost of hiring personnel who process the forms? Who will account for the fees collected? With whom does the buck stop in explaining this blatant fraud?. W here is the head of service of the federation when you need him. Why has the senate or house committee not invited the NYSC Director to come before it and answer questions.
Registration online is good but not with such amount of money for great citizens of the country, it does not make sense to me undergraduate has been travelling to all part of the states in the country for studies without complaining, is it going for call up letter and doing the registration exercise in the camp will be a big deal, great Nigerian Students and Graduate are used to different kind of stress by the government. So talking about making it easy is far from it instead make it easy by providing Job for graduates of this great country ” Nigeria”
The govt has started scaming its citizen with online registration fees, wat a shame. First it was immigration, now its nysc, next will be civil servants.
What a charge after they have eaten Nigeria’s money they want the citizens to pay for the vacuum account they have created.
Online registration is a welcome. Idea,pls Nigeria should accept it in good faith nothing good comes easy, because with online registration one can not take risk traveling from lagos to kaduna or kebbi to bayelsa to go and collect call~up letteOnline registration is a welcome. Idea,pls Nigeria should accept it in good faith nothing good comes easy, because with online registration one can not take risk traveling from lagos to kaduna or kebbi to bayelsa to go and collect call~up letteOnline registration is a welcome. Idea,pls Nigeria should accept it in good faith nothing good comes easy, because with online registration one can not take risk traveling from lagos to kaduna or kebbi to bayelsa to go and collect call~up letteOnline registration is a welcome. Idea,pls Nigeria should accept it in good faith nothing good comes easy, because with online registration one can not take risk traveling from lagos to kaduna or kebbi to bayelsa to go and collect call~up letter •