Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the former Finance Minister, came highly recommended with outstanding qualifications from highly regarded institutions in the UK. Though some believed that the schools were not top notch and that she didn’t have enough exposure for the post of Finance Minister.
Of course, Nigerians being lovers of everything and anything foreign, that also added to the attraction of having her in the service of the government.
First it was the Ogun State government where she served as Commissioner for Finance before moving to the federal level as Minister of Finance. Before assuming office at the state level, she had supposedly been screened by the House of Assembly and at the national level by the Directorate of State Security, DSS, and the Senate. On both occasions, she was handed a clean bill of health and she cruised off.
The bubble, however, burst in July when an online newspaper accused her of parading a forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Exemption Certificate. There’s a saying that; “Reputation is what you need to get a job, character is what you need to keep it.”
And so it was that Mrs. Adeosun’s character came into serious question.
As soon as the bubble burst, the NYSC came out to say it was investigating a “purported exemption certificate” which was allegedly obtained by the Minister of Finance.
It’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Mrs. Adeyemi Adenike, said in a statement, “Our attention has been drawn to the issue of the alleged forgery of an NYSC Exemption Certificate by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun. Checking our records, Mrs. Adeosun did apply for an Exemption Certificate. We shall investigate the origin of the purported Exemption Certificate in question.”
Meanwhile, ears opened to hear Mrs. Adeosun’s explanation, eyes looked onto her employer, the corruption fighting federal government, to react. But alas, nothing. Both Adeosun and the government felt that silence was the best answer to the foolish busy bodies. The only official of the government that bothered to speak on the issue was the Information Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed and his response was neither here nor there. In effect, he talked gibberish.
While NYSC was busy ‘investigating,’ a former Director of Mobilisation with the scheme, Mr. Anthony Ani, came out and unequivocally said the certificate in question was a fake, insisting it “wouldn’t have emanated from the NYSC.”
Ani, who spoke on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, insisted that there was no way NYSC would issue Certificate of Exemption to anyone who graduated before 30 years.
“You don’t apply for either NYSC certificate or NYSC certificate of national service or certificate of exemption, you present yourself for mobilisation. The system will determine whether you are to be exempted or you are not to be exempted,” he said.
According to him; “by the NYSC procedure, you don’t apply for exemption and expect a certificate. You make yourself available for mobilisation, when you are mobilised, those who are to be exempted are exempted and those who are to be deployed are deployed.” Till date, nobody has challenged his claim.
Adeosun had presented an Exemption Certificate dated September 9, 2009, purportedly signed by Yusuf Bomoi, a former Director-General of the corps.
Meanwhile, officials of NYSC, said Mr. Bomoi stepped down from the organisation in January 2009, and could not have signed any certificate for the corps eight months after. The retired Brigadier-General passed on in September 2017.
“This one is an Oluwole certificate,” a top official of the corps told one newspaper upon seeing a copy of the document. “We did not issue it and we could not have issued it.” Saying a document is ‘Oluwole’ means it is forged or fake as Oluwole is a community in Lagos Island notorious for housing experts in the art of forgery.
Rather than come clean, both Adeosun and the government kept quiet. The Chairman of the Presidential Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, reacting to the whole bruhaha, added fuel to the fire even though he was insistent that he expressed his personal views.
According to him, Mrs. Adeosun was such a “brilliant and extremely valuable member of the government. 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.
“There is nothing in this world that would make me remove such a woman from the government. The PDP can weep from now until there is no tear in their body; she is going to be there. We cannot afford to lose that woman.”
So because Adeosun in Sagay’s estimation is intelligent and hard working, her criminality should be condoned and perhaps applauded. There are no other intelligent people in the country whom the government can recruit to man the ministry.
More than two months after the story broke and having been at the receiving end of negative and downright insulting comments, Mrs. Adeosun finally turned in her resignation. The gist of the letter handed in on the September 14, was that she didn’t know the Exemption Certificate, which she presented to the National Assembly was not genuine.
She went on to spin a story that even Nollywood buffs would find difficult to believe. Part of the letter read; “when I relocated (to Nigeria), there was debate as to whether NYSC Law applied to me. Upon enquiry as to my status relating to NYSC, I was informed that due to my residency history and having exceeded the age of thirty (30), I was exempted from the requirement to serve. Until recent events, that remained my understanding.
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“On the basis of that advice and with the guidance and assistance of those, I thought were trusted associates, NYSC were approached for documentary proof of status. I then received the certificate in question. Having never worked in NYSC, visited the premises, been privy to nor familiar with their operations, I had no reason to suspect that the certificate was anything but genuine. Indeed, I presented that certificate at the 2011 Ogun State House of Assembly and in 2015 for Directorate of State Services (DSS) Clearance as well as to the National Assembly for screening. Be that as it may, as someone totally committed to a culture of probity and accountability I have decided to resign with effect from Friday, 14th September, 2018.”
Story for the gods as some people would say. Rather than clear her name, the letter is indeed a further indictment on her character. It is said that; “White lies are likely to leave black marks on a man’s reputation.”
And that is exactly where Mrs. Adeosun is at this point, covered with black marks from the lies in her resignation letter which raises a lot more questions than answers.
One wonders: Is it possible that someone of Adeosun’s status as at the time she returned to the country could not approach the NYSC on her own to know her standing? Is it possible that she didn’t have credible acquaintances who could have educated her on what the laws says about youth service and exemption? Couldn’t she have googled it? These days, one could get virtually any information from the internet. And pray, this ‘debate as to whether NYSC Law’ applied to her, who were the debaters and what was the outcome of the debate? Nigerians deserve to know.
Again, she claimed that upon enquiry as to her status relating to NYSC, she was informed that due to her residency history and having exceeded the age of thirty (30), she was exempted from the requirement to serve.
The NYSC has offices in all the states of the federation and anybody can walk into any of the offices and make enquiries. Why didn’t Adeosun? Since claimed she had never entered the premises of the NYSC, who did she then inquire from? Who are those who obtained the certificate for her? They are culpable.
We cannot and must not be hoodwinked by the emotional letter penned by Mrs. Adeosun or whoever. From the outset, she knew her exemption certificate was forged or faked. Why did it take her so long to present her ‘facts?’
Forgery is a criminal offence. It is an act of corruption. It is not enough for Mr. ‘Integrity’ to accept her resignation, and then permit her to leave the country. In fact, it is an insult on our collective intelligence. Adeosun must be made to face the law. Ignorance is not excuse in law and she is not convincing in her claim to ignorance.
She does not deserve any commendations for resigning. She ought to have done that more than two months ago. We must get something clear, Mrs. Adeosun is not a victim here. Nigeria is, our democracy is, our collective psych is. Adeosun is a culprit and must be seen as such.
A government that claims to be fighting corruption has not deemed it fit to so much as condemn the former minister’s action rather, it added her in evading the law.
What is good for the geese is equally good for the gander. Some people have been tried and convicted for the same offence for which the government and some people wish to have Adeosun canonised.
Salisu Buhari, the pioneer speaker of the House of Representatives following Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, who was accused of forgery was tried. Months after his election into office, he was accused of falsifying his age and university certificate. He was also discovered to have evaded participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, though he claimed to have completed his service.
After his attempts at cover up failed, he finally admitted culpability, apologised to Nigerians, and resigned from the House of Representatives. He was convicted for certificate forgery, and sentenced to two years in prison but with an option of fine.
In July this year, Lebi-Ayodele James, a former staff of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, was sentenced to two years imprisonment for obtaining and tendering a fake certificate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
He was tried before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), following arraignment by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), which accused him of forgery, possession of false document and providing false information.
He was also given a fine of N100,000 as restitution.
Another case in point is that of Nse Ekpenyong, a member of the House of Representatives representing Oron Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom, who in March 2017, was charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for forging a national ordinary diploma certificate of the Abia State Polytechnic, Abia.
The lawmaker, according to court documents, filed the forged documents with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while contesting in 2015. He was later remanded by the court in Uyo Prisons after he failed to satisfy bail conditions.
The following June, the EFCC also arraigned and docked Okon Bassey, who “allegedly” wrote WAEC examinations for the lawmaker.
What is the difference between Adeosun’s crime and that of Lebi-Ayodele and the others?
Under the NYSC Act, anyone who does not participate in the compulsory scheme is “guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N5,000 or to imprisonment for a term of three years or to both such fine and imprisonment.
Forging of the NYSC certificate attracts a similar punishment under section 13(4) of the Act.
If the federal government does not do the needful and bring Adeosun to trial, it would be setting a dangerous precedent that can only cause further harm to the essence of our nation.
The search light must also be beamed at the DSS. Should it not be their responsibility to verify certificates from institutions and organisations before certifying an individual qualified for appointment? Who were those that ran the check on Mrs. Adeosun?
What of the Senate? There are allegations that members of the Upper Chamber knew the certificate was forged but rather than make that known to the public, used it to blackmail her. That should be investigated as well. Anybody found to have aided or abetted Adeosun in anyway should also be brought to book.
For Prof. Itse Sagay, he ought to bury his head in shame. In fact, if he has any self worth, he should be resigning too. For a professor of law and indeed anybody to condone an act of criminality, raises a lot for questions about the individual’s integrity.
Truly the federal government needs to clean up its house. It appears there are so many rotten eggs in the crate.