Just before we destroy our national youth service programme

BY IKEM OKUHU

Those who are finding it convenient to keep quiet over the scandalous certificate scandal involving the now sorn-in Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah do not know how the localisation of the challenge and its perception as the concern of the people of Enugu State has the potential to create a carnivorous national malaise, capable of denuding what arguably is the surviving vestiges of arguably the remaining symbol of Nigeria’s national unity.

At a time that the country should be celebrating the National Youth Service Corps programme, which marked its 50th anniversary this year, it is most disconcerting that such a historic national landmark has had certificate forgery as its biggest talking point. More worrisome is the fact that some shade of opinion, driven by what looks like selfish political purposes, appear to be bent on allowing this avoidable sore to fester.

Even with all its challenges, one cannot deny the fact that one of the strongest legacies that Nigeria still holds on to in the difficult, endless journey to unity and integration remains the NYSC. As likes of political and religious fractures continue to threaten the wholeness of the country, this programme, initiated by former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, in 1973, has remained the only project that holds the country, like a stubborn thread together.

At this stage in the country’s journey as a nation, every person who wishes Nigeria to survive should be involved in the intentional safeguard of all icons, institutions, and even some intangibles that still prescribe and point to national unity, and the NYSC stands tall and strong among the few that have survived the centrifugal forces threatening to pull the country apart.

At 50, the National Youth Service Corps has proven its importance. It has survived several military interventions, lived through failed and successful democratic experiments, and helped heal when divisive actors flanked the country with religious and tribal upheavals.

But nobody expected the sudden and inexplicable attack that is emanating from the political class, and the judiciary. Every Nigerian, irrespective of class or creed, vocation, and avocation should rise in patriotic collaboration to, not only condemn these coordinated attacks but work hard to arrest the slide before it is too late.

It is important to stress this because of the direct implication the fate, good or bad, or the corps could have on the country’s unity. If the political class is allowed to lead the onslaught against the NYSC, and if the judiciary lends itself as a tool to give downgrade what was hitherto a sacred national symbol, nothing will be sacrosanct in the country again.

Before now the NYSC discharge certificate was held in high esteem by every Nigerian. It was a document people displayed with pride. The advent of social media of information has highlighted this quite strongly, as young people proudly displayed their discharge certificates on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to announce the end of their service to their fatherland.

People may have taken this for granted, but the period that marks the end of each service year announces the end of youth and dependency and heralds the commencement of responsible adulthood. Many things change in the lives of people at this stage, including the consciousness that the time has come for those discharged from the scheme to become economic value creators.
It is this consciousness that triggers the energy for industry and the quest for careers by young people. And the same way the Western world celebrates adulthood at 18 or 21, the Nigerian celebrates maturity with the completion of NYSC.

Many people may not be conscious of it, but the NYSC discharge certificate is the only one of its types in Nigeria. It is the only certificate that is uniform for every Nigerian graduate. The secondary school certificate, though issued by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), still bears the name of the secondary school one graduated from. Each bachelor’s degree belongs to and bears the name of the university that issued it. But only the NYSC certificate of discharge is uniform for all those who participate in the compulsory national service. Of further significance is the fact that this certificate bears the watermark, “Federal Republic of Nigeria” all over its surface, highlighting the connection between it and the Nigerian nation.

It is however saddening to witness the relentless attacks against such an important institution by persons and institutions who otherwise, should owe the corps the duty of protection and preservation. It is impossible for the vegetable plant to survive when the insect that is eating it, lives inside of it. In the same way, the surging battalion is imperiled if the general commanding it leads them into enemy enclave.

This is what we are currently witnessing in Nigeria, where a person whose participation in the compulsory national programme has been sworn in as governor of a state, and even as the matter is still in court, he has shockingly received some major leverage from the Nigerian judiciary that, through the instrumentality of a court, has ordered the NYSC and its agents to stop commenting on a certificate that it has, through the lawful opportunities provided by the Freedom of Information Act, has repudiated what this person presented as his discharge certificate as part of qualifications to stand for election.

In a matter of months, “Governor” Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of Enugu State, will, if he so pleases, mount the podium at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Awgu, to take the salute from corps members that would either be completing their onboarding programme or are being discharged after completing their full year of national service.

One would be forced to wonder what Governor Mbah would be thinking behind the privacy of his mind, about those young people given that during his own time as a youth, he refused to perform this national duty, as letters from the NYSC, and the public statement of its Director General, has suggested.

If Nigeria was not a country at war against its own systems and processes; a country where the financially mighty are always right and incapable of doing wrong, the person currently sitting as the governor of Enugu State should have either voluntarily given up that position, or duly prevented from such Olympian ascent by the systems and institutions of the state.

At 50, NYSC should not be facing such a battle by someone who would rather prevent the institution from engaging the public on what clearly looks like a case of forgery of its certificate than prove that he did serve his country, just like every other university graduate who wished to take up public office has done from 1973 till date. By his actions, Governor Peter Mbah is actually telling Nigerians that the NYSC has outlived its usefulness. More worrisome is also the implied message that one can circumvent anything in Nigeria. Anything!
This should worry every Nigerian, particularly as we all reflect on this landmark year of this national institution. It is obvious that the integrity of the NYSC and what it represents to the Nigerian nation is under attack, and I dare say that no one should feign indifference or nonchalant because the implications of destroying the authority of the NYSC or any other certificate-awarding body or school to remain the only voice for authentication will be far-reaching and dangerous for everyone.
One does not need to be reminded that a certificate is not the property of the person to whom it was awarded. On the contrary, a certificate legally and rightfully belongs to the awarding institution. It is only held to the extent that the holder remains worthy, as determined by the awarding institution, based on certain prescribed character parameters.

In the case of Governor Mbah, the awarding institution has made it clear, verbally and in writing, that the certificate he parades was not issued by it. The struggle therefore, to force the NYSC to admit having issued a certificate they have so serially disclaimed cannot lead anywhere else but a regime of devaluation of the NYSC and by extension, all certificate-awarding institutions in Nigeria.

Governor Mbah would not be the first to attempt this circumvention. Quite a number of people had tried it in the past but were either checked by the system or admitted wrongdoing and slunk out. But rather than tow this path, it seems the Enugu Governor wants the Nigerian system to bow to him. His bravado and attempts to bully the NYSC to submit to his desires suggest nothing else.

If he’s allowed to get away with this, what it means is that the system is encouraging people to sidestep virtually all official quarters of obtaining certificates in Nigeria thereby rendering certificates obtained in Nigeria worthless.

And that is why I said at the start, that seeing this challenge as one that affects Enugu State alone is dangerous. Nigeria is being put on trial. Our School certificates, our fancy Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees are all in grave danger of derecognition. When it happens, it would be happening to all Nigerians rather than just those from Enugu State.

Fisty is a great milestone tear for the NYSC. Let us celebrate this. But more importantly, let us rise against any person, persons, institution, and/or institutions that, covertly or otherwise, has, is, or could do something to tar the hard-won reputation of this institution, perhaps the only of its kind remaining in Nigeria, that is without blemish.

Okuhu, a Marketing Communications practitioner, is the author of PITCH: Debunking Marketing’s Strongest Myths. He lives in Lagos.