The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has frowned at the recent directive from the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), having slashed the number of graduates from every tertiary institution to be mobilised for the scheme by over 70 per cent.

Speaking on Sunday with News Express Correspondent in Abuja, President of the Association, Comrade Aruna Kadiri, said: “The claim by the NYSC is that it is as a result of lack of financial resources. Meanwhile, the budget of NYSC for this financial year has long been passed and was even extended to may 2017, after which there was short fall of about 50,000 graduates that were not captured.”

He argued that NYSC cannot lay claim to lack of financial resources because it applied for funding from the President and it was approved and funded through a Presidential Special Intervention Fund.

According to Kadiri, “The Director General of the NYSC, as a matter of urgency, should retract to the directive because it is against the growth and development of our teeming students and Nigerian citizens.”

He added that the development which has caused a general confusion in the students’ community across the nation is unacceptable and would be resisted by every peaceful legal means.

Lamenting further on the implications on Nigerian students, Kadiri maintained that “after graduation, graduates might have to stay at home for at least five years, considering the accumulated backlogs before being mobilised for NYSC.”

Kadiri further averred that the action by the NYSC would also result in a situation whereby participating in the NYSC programme will become a matter of 'who knows who' and how highly placed one’s father is in the society.

Kadiri, in a related development, called on the management of all tertiary institutions to suspend mobilisation to NYSC, pending the time the ongoing issue is resolved.

•Photo shows NANS President, Comrade Aruna Kadiri, stressing a point during an official engagement.

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