Nigerian Graduates Barred From NYSC
Thousands of graduates across Nigerian universities have been denied mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) flagged their admissions as fake in April 2024.
On Tuesday, several affected graduates informed SaharaReporters that approximately 14,000 individuals had their records unexpectedly locked on the JAMB Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), just a week before the mobilisation for Batch B Stream 1 was set to begin.
Despite accepting their offers years ago and appearing on the matriculation list, their portals began displaying “fake admission”.
Institutions affected include Ambrose Alli University, Imo State University, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Calabar, University of Benin, Federal University of Technology Akure, Lagos State University, Kwara State University, and Edo State University, Iyamho.
“We took JAMB exam (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination), but our admissions came from our school, not JAMB. We have been submitting our names for regularisation through the school for years, but nothing productive has come out of it,” one of the affected graduates said.
“In our final year, JAMB released a memo instructing us to complete our regularisation at the state office. However, when we went there, we were not treated well.
“JAMB directed us back to our school, claiming the school had not met certain requirements. Because of this, we had no choice but to pay for regularisation ourselves, which was the legal procedure for JAMB regularisation when we were first admitted. We weren’t informed that the process had changed.”
“Despite the challenges, we paid, and the regularisation was successful. We were given admissions, and our names were added to the JAMB matriculation list.
“But just a week before mobilisation for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Batch B Stream 1 in April 2024, our CAPS started showing ‘fake admission.’ By June, the fake admission was removed, and it directed us to visit the nearest JAMB office,” another affected graduate said.
“Many of us have been going to JAMB offices near us, but the situation worsened. JAMB keeps redirecting us back to the school, but even when some of us travelled to Abuja, we were told that criminals had invaded the JAMB website and were arrested.”
Lamenting their frustration, one of the graduates said, “We are victims and deserve to be treated as such. We can no longer take this. We cannot go for NYSC, further our education, or move on with our lives. We have become a burden to our parents because of this issue.”
They urged JAMB and relevant authorities to resolve the issue and unlock their academic records to allow NYSC mobilisation and further studies.
When contacted, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s spokesperson, explained that the issue stemmed from illegal admissions granted by some institutions.
“The process of admission, as stated by the law, is that a candidate writes JAMB, chooses an institution, and then the institution admits him through JAMB. They print an admission letter, and it’s a legitimate process. If a student gets admission through the back door into an institution, and we don’t know about it, we can’t give him an admission letter. There are processes,” he said.
Dr Benjamin further stressed that once JAMB was made aware of such irregular admissions, it would seek approval from the institutions involved. However, he made it clear that no institution should engage in illegal admissions after that point.
“Unfortunately, over 250,000 candidates were affected by this issue in the past. We have had agreements in place to standardise the process, and now, we’ve closed the window for condoning such regularisations.”
He also noted that students must meet the academic requirements for their programmes, adding that those who did not meet the necessary qualifications would not be allowed to proceed.
“We cannot continue to allow students who do not meet the basic requirements to enter the classrooms. Regularisation is not an automatic process, and we are firm about the rules and standards,”
The affected students, particularly those from Ambrose Alli University, are now calling on JAMB and relevant authorities to resolve the issue quickly and allow them to proceed with their careers and NYSC mobilisation.
