By John Agbo (John Lead)
This write up is a response to another one published in ‘This day Newspaper’ back page of 27th May 2023, under the title: “Mbah and NYSC: All Not Correct, DG Sir” by one Austin Okoli who from the diminished tone of his essay is a paid PDP cum Peter Mbah apologist. Specifically Mr Okoli is an indigene of Ogugu Community in Awgu LGA of Enugu State. Having known Okoli as a loquacious rabble rouser incapable of ever making a good political choice, one is naturally inclined not to accord any significance to anything coming from him in terms of writing. But being that this time around in a failed bid to magnet the attention of a nationally disgraced and discredited politician, he straddled into a topic that has by its nature assumed a national headline, the only option left is for one to swiftly torpedo the mischievous mission Okoli has undertaking in writing.
Quite unlike what that paid writer tended to portray in his opening paragraph, the National Youth Service Corp, NYSC has since inception lived up to the expectation of Nigerians as the only truly national institution where Nigeria’s unity and organizational integrity take precedence over every other primordial considerations. It is an understatement to say that the classical, strict and uncompromising nature of the successive handlers of that all important institution has enabled the Corp survive the test of time in the past 50 years. Due to the incontrovertible data storage and impeccable record of it’s activities, no corrupt politician or any other Nigerian has ever toyed with the integrity of NYSC and got away with it. Due diligence and probably this Austin Okoli of a man should have informed the embattled governorship candidate of PDP in Enugu State Barr. Peter Mbah that battling with NYSC will end up reducing him to the status of the proverbial Nwanza that came to challenge its god in a fight after eating itself to stupor.
In actual happenstance, it is not that the governorship candidate was not warned of the dire consequences of the pact he is treading, but as our people will often say, the death that will kill a dog often prevents it from perceiving the smell of its favorite excreta. Like Ojadili in Chike Aniakor’s ‘Ojadili: The Clever wrestler’, Peter Mbah, blinded by his inordinate ambition has continued to shun every wise counsel and as a result has landed himself in political ‘land of the spirit’ where his fate has been decided against him in a manner that renders him incapable of doing anything to change the situation. This is why it is appalling to sane Nigerians that the author of that essay in discuss lacks any iota of shame in opting to blame NYSC for Mbah’s self inflicted injuries.
Intending to sound objective and in a show of fake sincerity, Austin Okoli wanted to make a case against the continued use of world’s traditional method of data storage, the office file system. And I will respond to that illogical and flimsy narration by telling the general public that yours sincerely works in a popular medical facility reputed for the use of digital method of record keeping. Patients’ data are all accessed digitally and there existed a 100% absence of hospital files for patients for decades untill earlier this year when the unimaginable happened. The website of the hospital decided to crash in totality leaving no option for repairment according to the engineers who have been handling it for years. The implication of this was that patients’ records of up to ten years were permanently lost. Don’t even ask me if there was no digital back up because that one is another sad story altogether. It takes someone who witnessed this kind of sad and frustrating scenario to understand the need for sustainace of the far reaching traditional filing system in any reputable private institutions not just that of government.
On this note, I wish to state that Nigerians should be eternally thankful to NYSC for it’s meticulous method of data storage for the past fifty years. Not that digital record keeping is not good but it should be limited to serve as a back up to a more reliable, more secure and easily accessible means which NYSC has maintained over the years. So it is not the fault of NYSC that Peter Mbah decided to break his service year on his own and against the official advice of NYSC official conveyed through a letter with reference number, NYSC/DHQ/CM/M/27, that the law establishing the agency does not permit any form of splitting of the service year. In that letter dated 02-10-02, and signed by one Emmanuel A. Ajisafe, Peter Mbah was told that he has no option than to start his service afresh after the law school since the law does not recognize remobilization of any type. It is interesting to note that Barr Mbah by insisting that he was remobilized to continue from where he stopped has convicted himself since there exists a written evidence of the official information denying his remobilization request. Or is Austin Okoli pretending not to have read the letter written in response to the PDP candidate’s application for breaking his service year stating clearly that the application was not approved? Another notable fact here is that the copy of this same letter was equally supplied by Mbah himself in response to a petition against him in the ongoing Enugu State governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
But I agree with the attention seeking Austin Okoli that “Mbah vs. NYSC drama exposes the rot in every sphere of the Nigerian system”. Otherwise how did it happen that a boy who just graduated from university without doing his NYSC nor his law school program emerged the Chief of Staff Government House Enugu in 2003 and by the year 2004 got elevated to the status of commissioner for Finance Enugu State? Now to worsen the matter, this same man now called Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is today claiming that he was doing his NYSC at the same time he was serving as the Chief of Staff Government House Enugu and equally doing his Bar part 2 course at the Nigeria law school the same 2003. It is only in a rotten society that a man will be caught red handed in the act of forgery of a highly rated National Certificate, and he summons the temerity to sue the institution he forged its certificate in order to coarse it to accept the forgery. Does it occur to this hatchet author of the piece in question that this is not the first time Peter Mbah will be caught in this web of shameful controversy? During his troubles with the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, sometimes in 2007 following his massive embezzlement of Enugu people’s fund, the controversial Barr. Mbah stated in writing that he did his NYSC in the chamber of one Nnaemeka Agu but today he wants people to believe that it is in Victor Udeh’s chamber that he did his NYSC. Note also that the said Victor Udeh was Mbah’s prison mate during his incarceration by the EFCC. In writing also at the same period, Peter Mbah agreed to forfeit the some of 5 million naira to the Commission in order to regain his freedom. If this was not a plea bargain, what then should it be called? So one may need to ask on what ground was Peter Mbah’s name struck out of EFCC charge sheet in 2013 which he now often claims. Are Ndi Enugu not deserving of knowing what ground prompted the dropping of Mbah’s name if at all it ever happened?
Sounding merely accademic, Austin Okoli, a well known and advanced political jobber, listed plethora of both forged and real documents being brandished by the INEC governor elect and one continues to ask, if Okoli himself actually participated in the NYSC scheme? This question is imperative in that anyone who took part in this scheme knows quite well that merely mobilizing for service, issuance of call up letter, going to camp and participating in its activities does not authenticate the discharge certificate Peter Mbah is parading. And ironically this same man who wants to fault NYSC DG , Brig. Gen. Yusha’u Ahmed, for not adducing any reason for the continued repudiation of Peter Mbah’s discharge certificate in a national television, went ahead to inform his readers that at a point, the NYSC boss had informed the politician himself that the column where collected certificates are counter signed was empty in his own case which meant he didn’t show up for the collection of his discharge certificate. How else does any one expect the NYSC DG to give reasons for the righteous position of Corp?
Ever since this NYSC forgery case became a national issue, I have read Barr. Mbah himself making the argument that his certificate was printed by the Nigeria Printing and Minting Company, NPMC and that it has security features. And here, Mr Okoli regurgitated the same lame tale as if it is cogent enough to extinguish the irresponsible crime committed by the unfortunate governor elect. Let me explain this scenario and the technically twisted logic which the INEC governor elect wants to capitalize on to secure the legitimation of the imprisonable felony he delved into.
It is on record that NYSC prints its certificates in batches. It is equally on record that the printing is carried out by the Nigeria Printing and Minting Company, NPMC. What this means is that as soon as a prospective corp member is mobilized for NYSC, his or her certificate is already printed and securely kept by the Corp until he or she completes the entire processes. At this point, this certificate is presented to him in person at the zonal or LGA area office of the Corp during a wide ceremony marking the end of the service year. At this point, it is important to note that while discharge certificates are usually printed for everyone that went to NYSC camp, not everyone is usually issued with the certificate at the end of the service year for the reason that while some usually abscond from service, some usually default and still some never showed up to collect theirs. So one is inclined to believe from available information, that while Peter Mbah might have been mobilized, he was not deserving of receiving the certificate at end of the service year having absconded from service. Meanwhile, Peter Mbah argued that since he didn’t pass out with his set he couldn’t have signed the collection register that the NYSC DG talked about. Now the question is with which set did he pass out? Why did he not sign the collection register with the set he claimed to have passed out with? By implication, the PDP candidate nailed his own coffin by admitting that he didn’t pass out with his set in a bid to explain why his column for signing certificate collection was empty. It means that NYSC has no record that shows that Peter Mbah completed his service. And this is understandable because the scheme does not recognize any kind of remobilization.
To be fair, What Mbah ought to have done is to start service afresh instead of manipulating his ways into obtaining a fake certificate to prove that he passed out with his set. Let me note here also that what the Owo born politician did was a sophisticated forgery that may implicate the Nigeria Printing and Minting Company NPMC, if properly investigated. As for NYSC officials, they have done well by standing their ground as ever before. Thus, let it be mentioned that the self aclaimed business man turned politician and his gullible followers are taking Nigerians for fools in their attempt to teach NYSC how to confirm its own certificate. The madness of insisting that since no one else has the Mbah’s certificate number and that since it has security features bla bla bla must be jettisoned in the interest of Mbah himself. The embattled governor elect wants Nigerians to accept his forgery simply because it was done sophisticated enough to possess security features and the number not assigned to any one else. This makes a rubbish of all that Peter Mbah claims to stand for including his aclaimed foreign university law degree.
Finally let it be stated that NYSC remains almost the only focrum of Nigeria’s true sense of a united country that is still standing. Therefore Peter Mbah and co cannot be allowed to mess up that national institution which has ever remained the pride of every educated Nigerian. This is why the mere mentioning of contempt of court in the same sentence with the name of NYSC DG is most irritating. And we urge the political sychophant called Austin Okoli to tread with caution or risk the reality of attracting the anger of most Nigerians upon himself in this matter. The so called Abuja court, my lawyer friends say, over reached itself in appropriating jurisdiction over a matter that formed the major bases of the Petition against Peter Mbah in Enugu State governorship Election Petition Tribunal weeks before it entertained that frivolous suit. And since the court had no reason to entertain the matter in the first place, it makes a bunch of sense that its order is treated as if it never existed. So we make bold to congratulate the NYSC for standing true to type at 50.
*Agbo, a public Affairs analyst, writes from Enugu
