Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, did not participate in the mandatory one-year national youth service scheme. Instead, she forged an exemptio
Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, did not participate in the mandatory one-year national youth service scheme. Instead, she forged an exemption certificate many years after graduation. Mrs Adeosun’s official credentials obtained by PREMIUM TIMES 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.
The minister graduated from the Polytechnic of East London in 1989, at the age of 22. According to her curriculum vitae, she was born in March 1967.
The institution changed name to University of East London in 1992. Mrs Adeosun has her certificate issued in the new name. Having graduated at 22, it is obligatory for Mrs Adeosun to participate in the one-year national service, for her to qualify for any job in Nigeria. However, at the time of her graduation, the young Folakemi Oguntomoju, as she then was, did not return to Nigeria to serve her fatherland.
The NYSC scheme is compulsory for all Nigerians who graduate from universities or equivalent institutions at less than 30 years of age. According to the NYSC law, you cannot secure a job in Nigeria without your NYSC certificate. If you are eligible to undergo the mandatory service but skip it, you are liable to 12 months imprisonment and/or N2,000 fine, Section 13 of the NYSC law says. The law also prescribes three-year jail term or option of N5,000 fine for anyone who contravenes provision of the law, including giving false information or illegally obtaining the agency’s certificate.
Adeosun worked in Nigeria for seven years (from 2002 to 2009) before obtaining a “certificate of exemption” which Premium Times has authoritatively reported as fake.
“The NYSC does not issue exemption certificate to anyone who, like the minister, graduates before turning 30,” a top officials of the scheme familiar with the matter” said.
Adeosun served as commissioner for finance in Ogun state (2011 – 2015) and was appointed minister of finance by President Muhammadu Buhari government following confirmation from the senate and security checks by the Department of State Services (DSS) who failed to discover that the certificate is fake even though the senate did and kept mum. According to Premium Times, “A National Assembly cartel used the fake certificate scandal to coerce the finance minister to keep releasing funds to the lawmaking arm.
This isn’t the first time that Adeosun has been enmeshed in fraud and scandals. She has previously been enmeshed in a N10bn scandal involving the senate leaders.
