Ex-National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) members that lost all their belongings, including certificates during the 2011 post-election violence in Niger State have appealed to the federal government to provide them automatic jobs given their plight.
According to the Independent the victims spoke in an interview shortly after the sample presentation of N26.79 million cheques at the NYSC state headquarters in Minna.
Spokesperson for the affected ex-corps members, Godspower Igbokwe who said though they are appreciative of the federal government’s magnanimity offering financial incentives to cushion the psychological pains they are going through, the fact remains that nobody would agree to give them job without their certificates.
Igbokwe lamented that the WAEC/NECO SSCE and degree certificates for most of his compatriots were lost to the 2011 post-election crisis when their abode, the Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF)’s family in Minna House was set ablaze by hoodlums protesting the outcome of the election
“We appreciate the federal government for the financial support but I am thinking that providing job opportunities for us would have been better, if you ask me. Many of us lost all our belongings including certificates, the only evidence to show that we are Graduates.”
Igbokwe said, “Nobody will be willing to listen to your stories, you know what it is like getting job these days. Before anybody pays attention to your explanations somebody with complete certificate will present and he or she gets the job because applicants will see you as somebody that is not serious.”
He lamented, “Our case is further compounded by the fact that, WAEC/NECO or and universities or polytechnics we graduated from are also not willing to issue alternative certificates to us. How can we defend ourselves before employers of labour?