The President Muhammadu Buhari administration may have concluded on Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun’s alleged National Youth Service Corps certificate forgery.
An online newspaper had published a report on 7 July, alleging that Adeosun skipped the mandatory NYSC programme and presented a fake certificate of exemption.
According to the NYSC law, exemption certificates are issued to Nigerians who finished from polytechnics and universities (both in Nigeria and outside) below the age of 30.
However, the minister, at the time she graduated, did not fall under this group of persons.
And after 50 days, neither Adeosun nor the Buhari administration have said anything tangible on the matter; although the NYSC says it is investigating the forgery claims and the Federal Government has since noted that it will not make further comments on the matter until the probe is concluded.
CKN News gathered that the Minister had over time ignored attempts by the media to reach her over this issue, sparking rumours that she has the backing of Buhari.
It appears that the Buhari administration does not want Adeosun to be touched. The Buhari administration believes that she had done a great job in resetting the economy, notably bringing the country out of recession.
This might not be far from what the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Chairman Itse Sagay (SAN) had recently said.
“This woman [Adeosun] is a brilliant and extremely valuable member of this government,” Sagay had said.
“A lot of the good things happening now – the welfare that Nigerians are enjoying and are going to enjoy, because it takes time, and the way our economy is booming, how we got out of recession – are due to her expertise, her commitment, her sacrifice.”
He added that “If I were President Buhari, I would never, ever touch that woman because she’s damn good.”
To make the allegations die down and save face, the Federal Government plans on giving the minister a pardon, a national daily quoted sources close to her as saying.
Furthermore, Adeosun is said to be ignoring calls for her to speak on the allegation so it can die off naturally.
The approach, against her simple and easy-going nature, is said, according to her minders’ position, make her look unbothered by the weighty allegation.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had sued the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Brigadier-General Sule Kazaure over the development.
SERAP noted that it is seeking “an order for leave to apply for judicial review and an order of mandamus directing and/or compelling General Kazaure and the NYSC to urgently provide specific documents and information on Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s application to the NYSC for Exemption and to publish widely including on a dedicated and on the NYSC website, any such information.”
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