Following the alleged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate forgery scandal against the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, former director-general of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Joe Abah, has said if the allegations are true, Adeosun should not only be fired but prosecuted.
Premium Times had last week reported that the minister skipped the one-year mandatory scheme and later forged the certificate.
The report said the upper legislative chamber detected this when President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded Adeosun’s name for ministerial screening but rather than disqualify her, the lawmakers decided to use it as a tool for blackmail.
Although the minister has been silent since the report was filed on Saturday, several Nigerians have been mounting pressure on her.
“If it is true that the Minister of Finance did not do the NYSC and presented a forged certificate, then her position is irredeemably untenable and she must be fired and prosecuted. That a swift rebuttal or admission has still not been issued is difficult to understand,” Abah tweeted.
In the same vein, a social commentator, Kayode Ogundamisi, said that the finance of the country could not be entrusted into the hands of a “forger.”
“@HMKemiAdeosun if PM reports are true, your best bet is to RESIGN NOW! For the sake of Nigerians who enrol in @nysc_ng some even dying in the process. Nigeria’s finance can’t be entrusted in the hands of a forger, don’t wait for #KemiWhereIsYourNYSCCertificate? to trend please,” Ogundamisi tweeted.
Similarly, in a tweet, former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, called for the resignation of Adeosun, saying, “No wonder we are in a recession! It’s time for Kemi Adeosun to resign.”
On her part, Aisha Yesufu, a member of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, said the Buhari administration had fallen so low that it has given the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) some moral high ground.
“President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has fallen so low that it has given PDP that should be hiding it’s head in shame the opportunity to be on some moral high ground! PMB has redefined the word integrity,” she tweeted.
Tweeting, Japheth Omojuwa, a socio-economic and political commentator, said Adeosun’s silence is “pretty loud for such weighty allegations.”
“Kemi Adeosun’s silence is pretty loud for such weighty allegations. The allegations against her are weighty enough but the House of Cards like costs associated with it as it is linked with legislative blackmailing makes it an extremely expensive issue,” he tweeted.
In its reaction, the PDP advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to provide cover for the minister.
“PDP has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack, arrest and arraign his minister of finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun for alleged criminal forgery of her NYSC certificate,” the party said in a statement.
“The PDP challenges President Buhari to prove himself a man of integrity by allowing an open system-wide and independent inquest into all alleged corrupt practices in his presidency.”
