The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC replied the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, stating that no political office can replace the scheme.
The NYSC stated this while dismissing the claim by Adebayo Shittu, that taking political office had compensated for his deliberate refusal to take part in the compulsory national service.
The spokesperson of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), Adenike Adeyemi, said the minister’s juxtaposition of holding an elective office and undergoing the obligatory national service is an error.
Mr Shittu has for days now been advancing the argument that his election into the Oyo State House of Assembly immediately after his studies substitutes the mandatory service.
Lawyers who spoke on the issue said Mr Shittu’s justification for skipping the scheme is flawed and ludicrous.
Mrs Adeyemi concurred said the provisions of the Act are very clear, and there are no exceptions for any person like Mr Shittu who became a lawmaker at the age of 26.
“Serving in the National (or state) Assembly is not one of them (conditions for exemption from national service)”.
“You have read the Act and you can see the circumstances where someone is exempted, you analyse it if he [Shittu] was exempted duly or there is a reason why he should have served. But the Act is very straightforward on the grounds for not coming up to serve.
“If you are a graduate locally trained or foreign trained, as long as you graduate before the age of 30, you are expected to serve. Whether foreign or locally trained, the law is the same.
Our youths should be rightly guided that if you were able to complete your studies and as of the date of graduation, you are under 30, you are eligible to serve,” the NYSC spokesperson said.
Mrs Adeyemi insisted that the NYSC law gives no preferential treatment to Nigerians other than those exempted by Section 2 of the Act, emphasising that