VC Urges Prospective Corps Members To Be Good Ambassadors Of DELSU

— By Ben Nwanne

The Vice-Chancellor of Delta State University, Abraka (DELSU), Professor Andy Egwunyenga has reminded final year students who are Prospective Corps Members to be good Ambassadors of the University during their service year and thereafter.

Professor Egwunyenga who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Ochuko Anomohanran was speaking on Tuesday at the Opening Ceremony of the Orientation/Briefing of Prospective Corps Members and final year students by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) held at the 1000 capacity Lecture Theatre at Site 3 of the University.

Professor Egwunyenga, who recently received an Environmental Sustainability Award from the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), DELSU Branch, explained that the importance of the NYSC could not be overemphasized as it was an avenue for integrating youths into the larger society.

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He admitted that certain challenges were inherent in the mobilization process of Corps Members, but urged them to avail themselves of the opportunity of the interactions to familiarize themselves with how to address the challenges.

He appealed to the authorities of the NYSC to be flexible with some of the issues associated with mobilizing and deploying Corps Members to make things a little easier for them.

Speaking at the occasion, the Registrar of the University, Mrs. Rufina Ufiofio provided an administrative background to the issues by stating that “one of the core mandates of the NYSC since its commencement on 22nd May, 1973, is to inculcate discipline in the Nigerian youths by instilling in them a tradition of industry at work, and of patriotic and loyal service to Nigeria in any situation they find themselves”.

She explained that the briefing was a fallout of a meeting of NYSC Management and Registrars of Corps producing institutions held on 10-11 May 2022, where some abnormalies were observed in the mobilization process that arose from the ignorance of the students on the procedure for mobilization.

According to Mrs. Ufiofio who is the first female Registrar of the institution, “One of the notable resolutions of the meeting is that NYSC would continue to rely on admissions, processed through the JAMB Central Admissions Processing Systems (CAPS) for mobilizing of graduates. This means that there is synergy between JAMB and NYSC, your entry details must be the same. In the same vein, it resolved that change of name, name addition and name removal would no longer be entertained as only names used for matriculation would be used for NYSC mobilization. Therefore, the handle of name change (name addition and name removal) will be expunged from the NYSC portal”.

She explained that the purpose of the exercise was to educate and equip the final year students with information to enable them to fulfill their Constitutional obligation to Nigeria and also make them to efficiently tap from the “offers and opportunities that the one year service presents to the Nigerian youths”.

Welcoming guests and students to the occasion, the Dean of Student Affairs, Professor Maxwell Iwegbue congratulated the final year students on sustaining their studentship since their admission into the University, adding that being Prospective Corps Members was “moving to the next level”.

The Professor of Chemistry noted that the exercise was first of its kind in the University and urged them to avail themselves of the rare opportunity of finding out crucial information and clarifications on some knotty issues associated with NYSC mobilization and prayed that the exercise should be continuous.

The team from the NYSC Directorate to conduct the sensitization of Prospective Corps Members in Conjunction with Delta State University, Abraka, was led by Mr. Muritala Sanusi, Assistant Director, Deployment and Relocation at NYSC, Asaba, Delta State Chapter.