Compulsory NYSC Participation: Between Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Supreme Court

Don Ubani

Can the election petition tribunal contravene section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution and a judicial precedent by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on compulsory participation in NYSC?
At the end of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as Nigeria-Biafra War, in 1970, the then military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, was convinced that national unity was needed to heal some of the wounds of the War, established through Decree No 24 of 1973, the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.
The one-year programme was originally meant for participation by Nigerian University Graduates who were below the age of 30 years. It was meant to quicken national reintegration and foster national unity and cohesion.

Graduates above 30 years of age and others that were Personnel of the Armed Forces or the Nigeria Police Force and other paramilitary organisations were exempted from participation in the National Youth Service Corps by virtue of the training they already had. In any case, whoever was a Nigerian graduate under the said Decree 24 of 1973 was compelled to either successfully participate in the programme for one year, at the end of which he or she was issued a discharge certificate or, based on being above 30 years of age or being of the Armed Forces or the Nigerian Police Force, was issued an exemption certificate.

Therefore, only two certificates ((the discharge certificate and the exemption certificate) are known to the National Youth Service Corps. Anything other than these two certificates is alien to the NYSC. As far as NYSC is concerned, there is nothing like a ‘reference letter’ confirming that one participated in the scheme. It is either a discharge certificate, exemption certificate or nothing.

Both the NYSC discharge certificate and NYSC exemption certificate are officially serially numbered. If a Nigerian who had successfully participated in the NYSC Scheme is, for instance, in far away Cambodian Capital of Phnom Penh and lays a claim to have successfully completed the NYSC scheme, for whatever reason and or circumstance, the office or organisation in which he or she makes the claim in that beautiful City of Phnom Penh can easily confirm that claim simply by contacting the office of the director-general of NYSC.
On June 16, 1993, 20 years after its establishment, Decree No 51 of 1993 repealed the decree of 1973. The constitution and intendment of the decree were almost the same as that of 1973.

However, with the restoration of democracy in 1999, then-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration signed a bill that became the National Youths Service Corps Act of 2004. The act’s purpose remained similar to the previous decrees of 1973 and 1993.
Section 12 of the act states for employment anywhere in the federation and before employment, it shall be the duty of every prospective employer to demand and obtain from any person who claims to have obtained his or her first degree at the end of the academic year 1973-74 or, as the case may be, at the end of any subsequent academic year the following “(a) a copy of Certificate of National Service of such person issued pursuant to Section 11 of the Act; (b) a copy of Exemption Certificate issued to such a person pursuant to Section 17 of this Act

(c) such other particulars relevant thereto as may be prescribed by or under this act,” noting that it “shall also be the duty of every employer to produce on demand to Police Officer, not below the rank of an Assistant Superintendent of Police, any such certificate and particulars or copies thereof.”
Section 13 (b) states that “any person who refuses to make himself or herself available for service in the service Ccrps for the period specified in subsection (2) of this section is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N2,000 or to an imprisonment for a term of 12 months or to both such fine and imprisonment.”

Consequent upon the provisions of the National Youths Service Corps Act, five justices of the Supreme Court had, reportedly on Tuesday (Afor) July 30, 2019, in an appeal marked SC/790/2019, sacked the member that was representing Yola North/Yola South and Girei federal constituency of Adamawa state in the National Assembly, Abdulra’fu Abdulkadir Modibo of All Progressives Congress, APC, on the ground that he was not qualified to have stood for the election, having not properly participated in the mandatory one-year NYSC scheme.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment read by Justice John Okoro, therefore, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue a certificate of return to Jafar Suleiman of the Peoples Democratic Party, who came second in the polls.
Apart from the above, the 1999 Constitution, as amended, in an unambiguous term, states in section 177 that a person shall be qualified for election to the office of governor of a state if “(a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth, (b) he has attained the age of thirty-five years, (c) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party, and

(e) he has been educated up to at least, school certificate level or its equivalent.”
Drawing strength from section 177 of the Constitution, the National Assembly passed the 2022 Electoral Act. Section 77 of the act states that each political party “shall maintain a membership register in both hard and soft copies and make such registers available to the Independent National Electoral Commission not later than 30 days before the party’s congress, convention and primary election.”

The provisions of section 177 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended and those of the Electoral Act 2022 are so explicit that they need no interpretation by any court of competent jurisdiction or election petition tribunal. Even a layman does not need any interpretation of the above constitutional Provisions.

As it is said in Latin, the matter speaks for itself, res ipsa loquitur. It is the hope of the Centre For Equity And Eradication Of Rural Poverty and all lovers of democracy and justice that the Abia state governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Umuahia will, in arriving at its judgment, be fairly disposed in addressing the following issues. Is it lawful for a state Returning Officer to cancel votes already declared in a polling unit, ratified in ward and local government area? Could there be any ground on which a university graduate who also submitted his or her university degree for purposes of 2023 governorship election to the Independent National Electoral Commission but did not present either NYSC discharge certificate or exemption certificate from NYSC be considered qualified to have contested the 2023 governorship election in Abia state?

Should someone whose name is not in the register of a political party and who was not sponsored by any political party be deemed qualified to have stood for a governorship election in 2023?
Centre For Equity And Eradication Of Rural Poverty strongly believes that the chairman and members of the Abia state governorship election petition tribunal are jurists of impeccable integrity and will, therefore, be guided by the principles of equity, justice and fairness.

*Sir Don Ubani is the former commissioner for Information and Strategy, Abia State