DREAMS DELAYED can best describe the plight of frustrated and despondent graduates of Niger State College of Agriculture, Mokwa who are losing life-changing opportunities due to the failure of the institution’s management to accredit some courses despite graduating students from the affected departments.
In this report by The Explainer, Yunusa Umar recounted how institutional failure affects and delays students from participating in the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) mobilisation. Graduates from the institution have also repeatedly lost job opportunities, a situation which has exacerbated their economic conditions.
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When Hamzat Abdullahi gained admission, he was optimistic that the certificate would change his trajectory and give him the opportunity to secure his dream job. With high expectations, Abdullahi’s vision made him focus on his studies and finish with good grades during his National Diploma and Higher National Diploma programmes. He was one of the top students in the Department of Animal Health Technology of the Niger State College of Agriculture, Mokwa.
After graduating in 2022, he could not wait to secure a job and alleviate his family’s poverty. Sadly three years down the line, he is yet to be properly employed due to the institution’s failure to accredit his course and mobilise him for NYSC. Now a frustrated menial worker, every appointment which comes to get a decent job is knocked out. His plans and dreams of a good life have been serially shattered as each day passes by.
“It is very regrettable that my brother got an opportunity for me in the Federal Inland Revenue Service but due to the absence of the scheme’s certificate required, the opportunity slipped away from me because (I did not have) my NYSC certificate,” he said with grief written all over his face.
Meanwhile, Section 12 of the NYSC Act specifies that graduates who intend to work in the public sector must provide a certificate of National Service or an exemption.
The NYSC is an institution that fosters integration, development, and national solidarity. Founded in 1973, it aimed to promote cultural interaction and lessen ethnic and regional differences by allowing recent graduates to serve in different states across the federation.
This means that hundreds of students who passed out from the College’s departments of Animal Health Technology and Horticulture have been cut off from the chain of prospective employment.
Multiple interviews by The Explainer revealed that this harrowing situation is taking a toll on the affected students. With a punctured hope, Abdullahi’s life has become chaotic due to the numerous appointments that come through but he remained helpless as he suffers for the institutional negligence of the college.
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That is not all, his recent chance to be gainfully employed was shoved aside by the Niger State Civil Service because he is yet to obtain a NYSC certificate or exemption letter.
“During the last concluded recruitment exercise in Niger State, I also got another opportunity but still failed because I was not able to obtain a NYSC certificate. I completely lost every golden opportunity before me and to be enrolled into service,” he said with a whimpering face.
All that is left in Abdullahi’s head are memories of lost jobs, shattered dreams and expectations that he feels might not see the light of the day. Despite his high performance as an upper-credit graduate, his condition has coerced him to take the unimaginable path of auxiliary practice. Broken, all he now does is treat sick animals in his community to fend for himself.
Although there is no assurance that his mobilisation issue will be addressed soon, he is convinced that the Niger State government through its Ministry of f Tertiary Education would provide a sustainable solution to address the plaguing long-aged problem of non-mobilization for NYSC.
Investigation by The Explainer revealed that the challenge with the non-mobilization of graduates for the mandatory NYSC scheme is not peculiar to the graduating class of 2021 alone.
Graduating classes of subsequent years have found themselves in similar positions. Every student who graduated from the departments in 2021 and 2022 has been forced to face this harsh reality.
Aside from Abdullahi, Ibrahim Majin is another victim who shared his woes with The Explainer. Also a graduate of Animal Health Technology, he was lucky to be among the successful applicants shortlisted by Niger State Civil Service Commission.
However, it was when he journeyed to Minna, the state capital to proceed for further interview and documentation that he realised his joy had been cut short due to his failure to present an NYSC certificate.
“I applied with HND and I was shortlisted among people for an interview. On getting there, I was asked to present my certificate for screening only to find that an NYSC certificate is required among my documents”, he told The Explainer, describing the incident as perplexing and heart wrenching. It was not until he opted to use his National Diploma Certificate that he was allowed to be screened.
“I was told to go and wait for my time, meaning I should get NYSC certificate before I could use my HND results for the particular job,” says Ibrahim with a voice irked with anger. At that point, all his hopes evaporated. This challenge is contributing to either unemployment or underemployment among the institution’s Animal Health Technology and Horticulture graduates.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate decreased from 5.3% in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 to 4.3% in the second quarter (Q2), a report by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. It went on to disclose that the unemployment rate was 2.8% in rural areas and 5.2% in urban areas.
To students like Abdullahi Mohammed who graduated in 2023, he hoped that the school authorities would address the prevailing issue to enable students to proceed for their national service.
Although Mohammed has not applied for any job as at the time The Explainer interviewed him, his hope to serve his fatherland is also hanging. “The course that I studied (Animal Health Science) has been approved but the accreditation which should be final step is yet to be done. Like other departments in the college, their students were being mobilized but in the case of ours, students are still devastated due to non-mobilization”, he said.
“Other sets such as 2021, 2022, 2023 with another set of classes ongoing and would be graduated. Many believe that we would not have graduated successfully, until the issue is resolved,” Mohammed said.
Dreams Delayed: More Admission, Zero Mobilisation: Fates Hang, Career on Hold As Multiple Students shares similar woes.
Multiple interviews with several students who studied either Horticulture or Animal and Health Science revealed that the institution’s management intentionally lured them to enrol in unaccredited courses in the college. They expressed worries and sadness as they are stuck to advance and pursue their career choice.
Like others, Oluwafemi Joy, an HND II student of the college was lured to study Animal and Health Science with the promise to get the course accredited by the management.
“(I enrolled) because of my passion for the course. Also, the management gave us hope that the course would be accredited. That was what prompted me to apply.
“The school and government should come to our aid to accredit the course. We heard of people being chased out, while seeking jobs because of the NYSC certificate that they have not gotten,” she relayed her worries to The Explainer.
The Explainer found out that the two courses failed the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) accreditation process despite the institution’s spending on renovating and furnishing the department infrastructure.
“It has been three sets that graduated before us. Now, another set is about to graduate. They are saying that it is our set that they recognize,” said Khadijat Usman who pleaded to the management to accredit her course to prevent her from sharing a similar fate like others.
“They should just help us,” she pleaded, stressing that her course has not been approved but the management promised to accredit it in the second semester of her High National Diploma Programmes.
Authorities React
Contrary to The Explainer’s finding, Yusuf Doma, the institution’s registrar said the two courses have been duly accredited.
“Anybody that is telling you that there is a course in College of Agriculture Mokwa that is not accredited, that statement is false. But what I want to tell you now is all the courses in the college are accredited”, he told this reporter during a phone interview, stressing that the concerned courses are recognized by the National Board for Technical Education. Explaining that there was an inspection for the courses which have been causing students headaches, he disclosed that the NBTE would visit the institution for inspection of the results of Animal Health and Horticulture.
“They wrote back to the college, if you have time, you can come over to the college. I will show you those documents where they approve the courses, and they gave us what we call interim approval. There’s what we call interim approval of programs for the institution to run those programs. For a monitoring period of a maximum of six months, and little above”, Doma said.
When The Explainer inquired on the mobilization of graduate of the department, Doma emphasized that the students would be grouped and mobilized accordingly.
“I have answer for you for those ones that were graduated before the coming of the resource mission, those are the group you are referring to. We have a plan for them. All of them are going to be mobilized the moment we invite the same bit”, he said, urging this reporter to come to check accredited documents.
The Niger State Commissioner of Tertiary Education, Adamu Abdullahi Mamangi, said the ministry is aware that some courses are not accredited in the college.
“This government came into power in May 2023 and we inherited many educational problems. The then government approved monies for the accreditation but it was not funded. When we came on board, we activated that memo”, the commissioner said.
According to him, his Excellency, the Governor approved about 25 million Naira, which was paid to the accreditation authorities (National Board for Technical Education) in February.
He explained that the NBTE had gone to the institution for resource inspection for the two courses, narrating that a further six-month incubation period is about to elapse. After the incubation period they will come for the real accreditation. “So, after the accreditation, the course will be fully limited, the management of the college had initially wanted NBTE to allow them to write to NYSC to mobilize those they have graduated before they had that problem. But NBT refused that they don’t do it that way,” the Commissioner told The Explainer.
