After N3500 fee, NOUN graduates yet to make NYSC debut

Graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) will soon get the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) approval to participate in the one year compulsory service.

A 2012 announcement posted on the NOUN website asked students to pay a 'regularisation fee' of N3500 towards the regularisation of the process them to within the stipulated age to participate in the NSYC scheme.

"I write to inform you that as part of our preparations towards undertaking the National Youth Service, All graduating students are expected to regularise their admissions process.

"The sum of Three Thousand Five Hundred Naira (N3, 500) only is to be paid for the regularisation process," the announcement read in part.

The 'deadline' for payment was Friday 21st December 2012' but, two years on, the graduates are yet to make their debut.

What this means is that Open University graduates paid the fee but are yet to be approved in years 2013 and 2014.

In an interview published by the , the Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Professor Vincent Ado Tenebe, said the NYSC ought to allow its graduates into the scheme.

"On the issue of eligibility for NYSC, there is no reason to exclude graduates of NOUN who are within the age bracket from the NYSC programme because they have gone through the same curriculum with their counterparts in the conventional universities," Tenebe reportedly said.

"The only reason for the seeming challenge is that, when the NYSC started in 1973, the Open University system was not in place. At the moment, the NYSC is issuing exemption certificates to all our graduates."

He went further to express hope of a positive turn of events.

"I foresee a situation where our graduates who are still within the age bracket will be allowed to participate in NYSC after going through a programme of four or five years."

This is 2015 and many people are still wondering when this dream will become a reality.

Many students and prospective students will be hoping NYSC approves Tenebe’s request but it does seem dark in the tunnel with no end in sight.

The National Open University of Nigeria is a federal university accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC).