BEVERLY HILLS, September 14, (THEWILL) – It’s no longer news that Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, on Friday, resigned her position following allegations that she did not participate in the mandatory one-year national youth service scheme (NYSC) but instead, forged an exemption certificate many years after graduation.
The news surrounding her NYSC saga was first broken on July 7 by Premium Times stating that her official credentials show that the minister parades a purported NYSC exemption certificate, which was issued in September 2009, granting her exemption from the mandatory service on account of age.
Adeosun, born in March 1967, graduated from the Polytechnic of East London in 1989, at the age of 22 but the institution changed its name to the University of East London in 1992.
Having graduated at 22, it is obligatory for her to participate in the one-year national service, for her to qualify for any job in Nigeria. Instead, she pursued a fast-paced career in the British public and private sectors.
She first landed a job at British Telecoms, but left after a year to join Goodman Jones, an accounting and investment firm, as audit officer. She served there till 1993.
In 1994, Mrs Adeosun joined London Underground Company as Internal Audit Manager, before switching to Prism Consulting, a finance firm, where she worked between 1996 until 2000.
In 2000, Mrs Adeosun was hired by PricewaterhouseCoopers PwC, where she worked for two years.
When she eventually returned to Nigeria in 2002, Mrs Adeosun still did not deem it necessary to participate in the NYSC scheme but allegedly procured a fake exemption certificate in 2009.
The revelation trigerred widespread outrage from Nigerians, with the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, a non-governmental organisation, petitioning the Inspector General of Police (IGP) demanding an investigation into the claims against the minister.
Last month, another nongovernmental organisation, the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), sued the NYSC for its failure to disclose details of the certificate paraded by the minister having earlier made a freedom of information request to the NYSC which the agency ignored.
The Federal Government, reacting through Lai Mohammed, the information minister, weeks after the news broke, said the appropriate agency was still investigating the allegations and that the president would only act at the end of the probe.
Weeks after that, the Presidency via Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, stated that Adeosun’s alleged certificate forgery is under investigation.
Shehu who appeared on AIT’s breakfast programme, Kakaaki on Monday, September 10, 2018, assured Nigerians that the outcome of the investigation would be made public.
“The minister of information has spoken on the matter and a process is ongoing to address the allegations. When that process is complete, Nigerians will know the outcome,” Shehu said.
“Some people want a particular outcome and because they are yet to see this outcome, they are not happy. Give it (investigation) time. There is a process ongoing.
“It’s an allegation. If it is proven, you will see what will happen. The minister and the NYSC have spoken on the matter.”
However, the Minister has bowed to pressure as THEWILL, on Friday, September 14, confirmed that she resigned saying she didn’t want the government to be distracted or the allegations to be used for political gains against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Although she kept mute, perhaps, hoping silently that the allegations would be soon forgotten, her long walk to resignation reached its zenith on the 69th day, since the story broke.
