*Insists the Act did not preclude NOUN graduates from the national service
*Blames NYSC management for providing opportunities to be taunted
By Daniel Tyokua
An elder statesman and educationist, Chief Ezechukwu Wachinemelu, has faulted President Bola Tinubu for instructing the Minister of Education to remove the snag against mobilising graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme.
According to him, the NYSC management has been in breach of the NYSC Act by excluding graduates of NOUN from the one year compulsory national service all along.
Chief Wachnemelu cited Section 2 of the NYSC Act, Cap N84, which states that “every Nigerian shall (a) if, at the end of the academic year 1972-73 or, as the case may be, at the end of any subsequent academic year, he shall have graduated at any university in Nigeria”, to buttress his points.
According to him, “the law is unambiguous, put in simple language, specific and does not require any presidential push or instruction to be complied with”.
He noted that “all along, the NYSC management had been in breach of the clear provisions of the NYSC Act, because that Act did not exclude graduates of NOUN from participating in NYSC programme; its not written anywhere in that Act.
“What President Tinubu should have done was to apply the necessary punishments as contained in Section 13 of the Act because the laws clearly spelt out punishments against any individual or institution and the kind of punishment thereof for the violation”.
Section 13 (5) of the NYSC Act states: “Where an offence under subsection (3) of this section has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other official of the body corporate, or any person purporting to act in such capacity, he as well as the body corporate, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be prosecuted against and punished accordingly”.
He wondered why instead of applying the law and metting out punishment as stated, “the President is parrying the offence and pretending he is not aware of the punishment”.
He insisted that it was wrong for President Tinubu to have assumed that the letters of Section16 of the NYSC Act, which states that “The President, Commander-in-Chief may make such regulations as may be necessary or expedient for the purposes of achieving the objects of this Act, and in particular, without injustice to the generality of the foregoing provisions”, applies in this regard, pointing out that “section 16(2) deals only with emoluments and incidental matters and not on qualification for national service”.
He added that presidential powers on administrative procedures, cannot override clear statements of law as spelt out in Sections 2, 13, 16 and other sections of the Act.
High Chief Wachinemelu advised the NOUN management or their graduates to approach the NYSC management to mobilise them and if they still fail to mobilise them, should file a suit at the Federal High Court to interprete Section 2 of the NYSC Act as it applies to their graduates.
He noted that a situation where some administrators pick and chose which laws to apply or not had been behind Nigeria’s underdevelopment, stressing that “the NYSC had been in violation of the law with regard to NOUN graduates, which must stop”.
He also said “it is against the law to query if any public office holder should possess NYSC discharge or exception certificate, noting that sections 2(a-d), 12(2), 13 and 17 shall mandatorily apply in all circumstances”.
He further blamed the NYSC management and legal department for allowing some powerful Nigerians, including members of the legislature and ministers to box it to tight corners always and slip their way from evading NYSC compulsory service.
He noted that some issues that went to court during the last general election, bother on wrong interpretation of the NYSC Act, pointing out that “the management of the NYSC should sit up, thoroughly study the NYSC Act to bring to an end all the show of shame that had confronted it on issues of National Service by powerful Nigerians, especially the politicians”.
