KEMI ADEOSUN RESIGNS AS NIGERIA'S FINANCE MINISTER FOLLOWING NYSC CERTIFICATE FORGERY SCANDAL.

Nigeria's Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun has resigned following the allegation of NYSC certificate forgery levelled against.

Few months ago, it was reported that she did not participate in the mandatory one-year national youth service scheme, instead, she forged an exemption certificate many years after graduation.

The NYSC certificate which is  a requirement for government and private sector jobs in Nigeria, prescribes punishment for anyone who absconds from the scheme or forges its certificates. Section 13 subesection 5 of the law also criminalises giving false information or illegally obtaining the agency’s certificate. It provides for up to three-year jail term for such offenders.

Mrs Adeosun’s official credentials 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.

Mrs Adeosun graduated from the Polytechnic of East London in 1989, at the age of 22. According to her curriculum vitae, Mrs Adeosun 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.

Upon graduation in 1989, the Applied Economics graduate pursued fast-paced career in the British public and private sectors.

She first landed a job at British Telecoms, but left after a year to join Goodman Jones, an accounting and investment firm, as audit officer. She served there till 1993.

In 1994, Mrs Adeosun joined London Underground Company as Internal Audit Manager, before switching to Prism Consulting, a finance firm, where she worked between 1996 until 2000.

In 2000, Mrs Adeosun was hired by PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she worked for two years.

When she eventually returned to Nigeria in 2002, Mrs Adeosun still did not deem it necessary to participate in the NYSC scheme. She simply accepted a job offer at a private firm, Chapel Hill Denham.

However, ostensibly concerned that she might run into trouble for skipping the mandatory scheme, Mrs Adeosun, sometime in 2009, procured a fake exemption certificate.

The NYSC does not issue exemption certificate to anyone who, like the minister, graduates before turning 30.

Mrs Adeosun’s ‘certificate’ is dated September 9, 2009, and was purportedly signed by Yusuf Bomoi, a former director-general of the corps.

Officials said Mr. Bomoi stepped down from the NYSC 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.

Using that fake certificate, Mrs Adeosun went on to clinch high-profile jobs at Quo Vadis Partnerships (managing director), Ogun State Government (commissioner for finance), and Federal Government of Nigeria (minister of finance).

By the provision of Section 12 of the NYSC Act, employers must demand NYSC certificates from prospective employees. The law also mandates employees to present only genuine certificates for that purpose.

Section 12 of the Act reads:

“For the purposes of employment anywhere in the Federation and before employment, it shall be the duty of every prospective employer to demand and obtained from any person who claims to have obtained his first degree at the end of the academic year 1973-74 or, as the case may be, at the end of any subsequent academic year the following:-

a. A copy of the Certificate of National Service of such person issued pursuant to section 11 of this Decree

b. A copy of any exemption certificate issued to such person pursuant to section 17 of this Decree

c. Such other particulars relevant there to as may be prescribed by or under this Decree.”

Without demanding or verifying the veracity of the certificate presented by Mrs Adeosun, two Nigerian government institutions, the Ogun State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria employed her at various times.

On becoming governor in 2011, Ibikunle Amosun nominated her into his cabinet. She proceeded to serve as commissioner of finance for four years.
amosun

In November 2015, Mrs Adeosun was sworn in as minister by President Muhammadu Buhari, and assigned the all-important finance ministry, after a supposed security and Senate screening.