The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC in a current drama, has revealed that it remobilized Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, a ministerial nominee of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu 12 years after he absconded from the scheme.
Tunji-Ojo who is a second-term member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives said he underwent the National Youth Service Scheme between November 2019 and November 2020.
The revelation on the floor of the Senate generated a lot of reactions. Some Nigerians asked if the Honourable member was serving Nigeria at the same time he was in the green chamber.
His NYSC certificate showed that it was issued in February and signed by Yushau Ahmed, a Brigadier General, who only became NYSC Director-General (DG) in January.
Concerns were raised as to why his case was different as NYSC issues certificates immediately after completion of the programme and does not reprint lost or damaged certificates.
Responding to the discrepancies, NYSC said Mr Tunji-Ojo’s certificate is genuine, noting that the nominee was first mobilised in 2006 but “absconded from the service.”
NYSC said Mr Tunji-Ojo only later resurfaced in 2018 and was remobilised in 2019 and deployed to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in Garki, Abuja, as his place of primary assignment.
The organisation, however, said Mr Tunji-Ojo’s certificate was omitted when others were printed in 2020.
“During the passing out, his Certificate of National Service was not available because it was omitted in the Certificate Printing Application,” the NYSC added in response to an inquiry by Premium Times.
“He (Mr Tunji-Ojo) applied for his Certificate of National Service through the State Coordinator FCT on 18th October 2022, and the State Coordinator forwarded the same to the Headquarters and his Certificate of National Service No. A004523631 was produced on 28th February 2023 for collection.”
