MINISTER KEMI ADEOSUN’S NYSC CERTIFICATE SCANDAL: NIGERIANS EXPRESS OUTRAGE

By: Jumoke Olasoji

The minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun,  reportedly shunned the mandatory one year national service but instead obtained a 'fraudulent exemption' certificate years after.

The saga has generated reactions from Nigerians many of whom have called for the resignation of the minister.

Mrs Adeosun, after her education at the Polytechnic of East London (now University of East London) in 1989, reportedly stayed back in London when she was suppose to return to Nigeria to observe the mandatory one year national service as required for Nigerians who graduate before their 30th birthday. However, she obtained an exemption certificate which is reportedly fake.

Many Nigerians have expressed their disapproval online via social media platforms calling the action of Mrs Adeosun as unacceptable .

Most of thesocial media users called on President Muhammadu Buhari to launch an investigation into the scandal and sack Mrs Adeosun describing her  ministerial appointment as failure of various arms of government to detect the discrepancy by way of due diligence.

Some commentators expressed outrage that someone who had not experienced the national service is occupying a high office while a lot of those who went through the process are without jobs.

Commenting on the issue, a columnist and activist, Jibrin Ibrahim said; “Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun skips NYSC, forges certificate SHE SHOULD GO TO JAIL as required by the law. 

A Facebook user, Pa Ikhide, wrote: “‪If it is true that Nigeria’s Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun forged her NYSC certificate, she should resign. That won’t happen. This regime like the ones before has no integrity, and knows no shame. To be fair, she is not alone in this, there is no incentive to be honest in Nigeria, people choose to be. Short cuts are us.”

“The NYSC has a moral burden to also clarify its own part of the allegations via a public statement. That should happen this week without any further delay.

“The allegations are heavy and institutional to the extent that they cannot be swept under the carpet. Any silence from Mrs Adeosun or NYSC quarters will be rightly interpreted as admittance of guilt.

“What an enlightened public needs to do is to form a coalition of pressure to force the Minister and NYSC to react urgently. Mrs Adeosun and the NYSC represent public institutions serviced through the public funds. Therefore, they owe us their own side of the story.”



in his own words, an anti-corruption activist, Olanrewaju Suraju, said the issue is too serious for the Buhari government to “treat with levity.” He said Mrs Adeosun must be made to respond to the allegations promptly.

“The fundamental issues are whether the Minister, having completed her 1st degree under the age of 30 years, without a record of service in armed forces or police at the time, is qualified for an exemption.



“Then you will have to get to the nature and genuineness of the certificate. The alleged signatory of the certificate and the date as reported in the story is a major consideration in determining the alleged forgery of the certificate,” he said.

According to the activist, Mr Buhari should “demand a response from the minister within two weeks and make same public. Failure to which she should be sacked.

“The police should commence investigation into the allegations and those connected with the case; State Security Service officials and the senators who exploited her condition to extort allocations from in the National Assembly should be made to account for their complicity.

In his reaction, a lawyer and activist, Inibehe Effiong, said Mrs. Adeosun should be fired immediately “if this strong allegations against her are verifiable. She cannot be managing the finances of the country with a forged credential. Forgery is a felony, a serious crime”.

“While the children of the poor in Nigeria go through the mandatory one year national youth service and still cannot get jobs because the elites and the political class have cornered available jobs for themselves and their children, we now have an elitist Finance Minister who is said to have refused to serve her country but had the audacity to forge an exemption certificate which she used to get high political appointments.”

He said the case of the finance minister “is another test of the sincerity of President Buhari in his much touted fight against corruption”, as he called on the president to “fire her immediately if she refuses to resign. Nigerians are watching once again to see how Buhari will treat this case.”

In their own reaction, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, called on Mr Buhari not to provide a cover for Mrs Adeosun but to hand her over for full scale investigation and prosecution.


Mr Ologbondiyan added that the revelation vindicates its stand that the Buhari presidency as a “haven of fraudsters, common thieves and persons of questionable character”.


Speaking on the ame incidence, A leader in the ruling party, APC said;

“We will advise the president because it is dangerous to let this pass,” the member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the governing APC said.

He compared it to a car purchase scandal involving a former aviation minister, Stella Oduah, which was brushed off by former president Goodluck Jonathan.

“The Oduah saga haunted Jonathan to the end. This can push the president off the cliff if care is not taken,” he said.