Fast Track NYSC Registration for Foreign-trained Graduates - Part 1

What’s the worst that could happen?

Having spent a couple of weeks stressing about NYSC registration and eventually succeeding in completing the entire process in one day, I believe someone in Lagos can catch a morning flight to Abuja, sort out the registration with minimum stress and be back home early enough for lunch! The aim of this article is to help you achieve this feat :)

Please leave a comment if your experience contradicts any information in this document.

At this point, you may be wondering: what’s the big deal? Why bother reading about the process when you could just prepare the documents listed on the official website. "After all, what’s the worst that could happen?" Well, the worst case scenario is that you could end up burning so much cash, getting stressed out and wasting days trying to sort out your registration. Please allow me to give an illustration of the worst that could happen:

• You stroll into the NYSC office one Monday morning and get directed to the first floor where you find other foreign graduates standing in line. You join the queue as well.
   
• Now you stand on the queue, passing time by reminiscing about your not-so-attractive ex-girlfriend at university that kept trying to convince you to forget about NYSC, get married to her, get your papers in that country and live happily ever after. Good times. If only she was a bit more attractive. You insist on serving your country.
   
• 15 minutes and one daydream later, you have a chat with the person in front of you. At this point you realise you were on the wrong queue. Oh well, it's not the end of the world.
   
• You eventually find the right queue. 60 minutes and 10 daydreams later, it’s finally your turn to enter the office.
   
• Inside the office, they look through your documents and hand you two blank forms. Now it's 1pm so you ring your mum that you may not make it back home on time for lunch.
   
• After filling the forms, you make your way to another room where they have to ensure you’ve filled the forms properly. You queue up for 30 minutes until it’s your turn.
   
• Reading through the forms, the lady informs you that you should have included phone numbers next to the names of your next of kin (even though it clearly isn’t stated on the form). So you try to find a table to fix that. At this point, three other Otondos (I mean applicants) jump in front of you.
   
• 15 minutes later, it’s finally your turn again. This time the lady goes through your primary school details (yes you read that correctly. PRIMARY school details) and informs you that what you received at the end of primary school is actually “primary school leaving certificate” and not “national common entrance” or whatever you belief you got from primary school. Then she remarks: “how did all these people even graduate when they don’t know how to fill a simple form”? At this point, the other applicants begin to give you funny looks. They’ve all received unnecessary strokes because of your excessive Otondo-ness.
   
• You do a few more laps with multiple changes (which, by the way, I hope to help you anticipate) to the forms. If the forms end up too rough, you may be asked to fill new ones.
   
• At this point, you’re probably wondering “why is Nigeria’s system so frustrating”? “Who even asked you to do NYSC sef”? “If only you stayed back after university to live happily ever after with your quite attractive ex-girlfriend”.
   
• Anyway, finally, she’s finished checking the forms. Pheew! It’s 2.30pm. You just might make it back home early enough for dinner. You wish :)
   
• Now it’s time to check your documents. Looking at your university certificate, she asks you for evidence that Oluwadamilola on the WAEC certificate is the same person as Dami on the university certificate. You smile with confidence. You saw this one coming. You bring out your laminated affidavit. Gbam! Sorted! Then she asks you for the newspaper publication of your change of name. Uh oh. “What do you mean by newspaper publication” you ask.
   
• Ten minutes and one hopeless begging session later, you find yourself outside the NYSC office. Then you ring mummy and daddy to go and transfer some extra cash into your account. You may need to spend the night in Abuja. You need a newspaper to publish your change of name.
   
• At this point, daddy informs you that aunty Kemi works for Vanguard newspaper so it should be dead easy. Thank goodness. Lucky you. Now you ring aunty Kemi. She then informs you that Vanguard only publishes change of name on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Crap. Today’s actually Monday.  
   
•  Aunty Kemi then asks you to check around if there’s a way to get other newspapers to publish something quickly. You look at your watch, it’s now 3pm. At this stage, you now remember there is a sign at the gate that says the office is only open until 3.30pm. Game over!
   
• Now you have three options:
• Fly back to Lagos and get another return flight to Abuja in few days’ time with your newspaper publication (and of course hope there is nothing else wrong with your documents).
• Ring mummy and daddy again to transfer some more cash because you will be in Abuja for a few more days.
• Forget NYSC jor! Pick up your almost-expired student visa, travel back to wherever you studied and convince your, now super-attractive, ex-girlfriend that you’ve just realised she’s the one for you. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? You just may not be able to work in any Nigerian public office and, of course, kiss goodbye to Nigerian foreign scholarships.

Yup that’s one possible worst case scenario. On the bright side, at least you'll live to fight another day :)
 

During my registration, I fell victim to some of these issues. In addition, I also witnessed applicants struggling with other issues I will mention later.

In summary, the aim of writing this is to provide tips on the entire process i.e. relevant details about the NYSC office in Abuja, documents you should take along, how to organise your documents, what to write in various sections of the form, money-saving tips and some things to bear in mind if travelling by air. Trust me Nigerian domestic flights can be funny at times.