Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti
The Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti and its medical department are in the news for the wrong reasons. The Polytechnic has preyed on the fears of parents and the recent directive of the NYSC for its prospective corp members to go for an intensive medical checkup before deploying for camp.
Recall that years back, NYSC and the Federal Government came under scrutiny because of the perceived indifference with regards to corps members dying in their respective NYSC camps. Nigerians cried out that if the Federal Government does not do something urgent about the rate of deaths of corps members, especially when camping in the different states of the country, the situation will grow worse.
Citizens argued that the entire country was a bomb field, where anyone’s life could be snuffed out at will. With this in mind, many corps members have already lost their lives in unexplainable circumstances. The way the corp members were dying was a cause for concern. The truth is that many Nigerian bereaved families are regretting allowing their sons and daughters to go for national youth service only to be confronted with their deaths in unexplainable circumstances.
The rising mortality rate of youth corps members across the federation became a national debate. We heard now and then, news of corps members dying or being killed made headlines. While some died in the orientation camps, others were killed at their places of primary assignment. Thereby, subjecting the national youth service, which used to be fun at the beginning, now a nightmare.
In response to the growing criticism, NYSC introduced the tendering of a Medical Certificate to ascertain the medical fitness of all intending corps members, before admission into its orientation camps nationwide.
So what started out as a measure to curtail the deaths, has been turned into a revenue-generating scheme by Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti. Most prospective corps members have voiced concerns and outrage with regards to the school’s exploitation of the NYSC directive.
Everyevery.ng was able to gather that on Friday the 21st day of February 2020, an internal memo was released from the office of the Deputy Registrar, Exams, and Records of the Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti, G.O Oyawoye with Reference Number FPA, R.E&R/VOLII/36/89 and equally signed by him.
This internal memo acknowledged the introduction of the medical fitness certification requested from all intending Corps Members by the NYSC and mandated all its students in that category to approach the institution’s medical laboratory for all the tests required.
It also went further to warn that any student who fails to run the tests at the institution’s laboratory will not be given his or her statement of result, which is also a requirement for admission into the NYSC orientation camps.
To authenticate the dictate of this memo and its seriousness to the students, the Institution’s Rector, Deputy Recto Academics, Administration, Dean of Student’s Affairs, Dean CEC, Director Medical Services, and that of Academic Affairs were all copied.
Though the amount to be paid for these tests was not indicated in the memo, but Everyevery.ng was able to gather that the tests were to go for N4,500 (four thousand, five hundred nairas). This amount is expected to be paid by over 2000 students who recently concluded their Higher National Diploma from the institution.
It is a regular practice to pay for the medical test, but to the dismay of students and parents, the school is issuing medical certifications without any medical test run on the students. For the sum of 4500 per student and over 2000 students eligible for service, the school is making over 9 million naira for doing nothing.
This is not only the problem but that the Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti seems not to care about the fact that it is selfishly and unnecessarily putting the lives of thousands of its students at risk. It is also working vigorously to forfeit the primary purpose for which NYSC came up with the medical certification exercise.
The institution is so bent on ensuring that every prospective corps members in the school take the test. Everyevery.ng discovered that the school has refused to accept medical tests done outside the school, no matter how reputable the laboratories or hospitals are.
The question should be asked about why the school is putting the lives of it’s student in danger?
The medical certificates issued by the school’s Director of Medical Services, Dr. Ikechukwu.C, shouldn’t be used because no test was run on the students.
The students are afraid to speak out, knowing that the Polytechnic can make their lives hard. But one of them spoke out in a tweet to NYSC Headquarters through @officialnyscng, though not getting a satisfactory response.
According to @officialnyscng, NYSC does not interfere with institutions’ internal activities. What more can be said or done?
So if NYSC can’t help, whom should they run to?