Corruption In Nigeria: Pressure mounts on NYSC to cover up Kemi Adeosun’s certificate scandal

The National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) has come under intense pressure since the publication of an exclusive story by Premium Times exposing how finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, avoided the obligatory national service and fraudulently obtained an exemption certificate.

Mrs Adeosun, who graduated at 22 in 1989 from the University of East London, ought not to have been issued with a Certificate of Exemption of the service. The minister does not fall in the category of those entitled for exemption.

The story has generated outrage from Nigerians who asked the minister to resign from her post or be fired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Details published by this newspaper on Monday showed that the purported certificate was among the set of documents submitted by the minister for her appointment and screening in 2015.

NYSC management on Monday issued a rather vague press statement distancing itself from the certificate paraded by Mrs Adeosun, but at the same time claiming it was investigating its source. It confirmed the minister had applied for the certificate.

Mrs Adeosun is yet to respond to the issues raised, 72 hours after publication of the story.

Many Nigerians were unsatisfied by the NYSC’s response with some seeing it as a first step in giving the minister a dubious cover.

PREMIUM TIMES understands that the press statement was extracted off the NYSC after a high-level lobbying and pressure mounted on the director general of the service, Suleiman Kazaure.

There are also feelers from the NYSC headquarters that some intercessors who want the matter completely covered were suggesting misplacing the relevant NYSC register as a last resort.

Mr Kazaure, a brigadier general, was said to have come under severe pressure since the publication on Saturday with a governor believed to be Mrs Adeosun’s godfather repeatedly reaching out to the NYSC boss.

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