By Godwin Etakibuebu
The issue for today’s discussion has been adequately captured above. It is all about Mrs Kemi Adeosun; Nigeria’s brilliant and beautiful Minister of Finance who hailed from Ogun State in the South/West geopolitical zone of the country and her alleged scandal of the National Youth Service Corps “Certificate of Discharge” forgery. But before doing justice to this complicated matter; given the caliber of person involved, let us take a memory journey down history for evaluation of similar scenario in the immediate past. We shall thereafter come back to the federal finance minister.
Ibrahim Salisu Buhari; handsome, presentable, lively and somehow hilarious, from Kano State was elected first Speaker of the House of Representative of this Republic as the National Assembly was inaugurated on June 3, 1999. The young man who hailed from the Nasarawa Federal Constituency of Kano State, under the People Democratic Party, clinched the coveted seat by defeating a main challenger in the person of Honourable Abubakar Sadiq Yar’Adua from Katsina State.
He however spent only 49 days as a member of the House of Representative and the Right Honourable Speaker of that Green Chamber before resigning from both offices on July 22, 1999, when he was caught in the web of age falsification and certificate forgery. One of the documents he was alleged to have forged was that of the National Youth Service Corps discharged Certificate.
The News Magazine did a thorough investigation and revealed that the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Toronto in Canada, certificate obtained in 1990, and presented by the Speaker for his election was actually a forgery. He was also caught as not serving in the National Youth Service Corps [NYSC] in 1991 but paraded a falsified certificate of Service. There were other falsified documents concerning him that the Magazine revealed but let us come to the age falsification.
He said he was born on January 3, 1963, which constitutionally qualified him to be elected into the House of Representative by 1999 but it was discovered that he was actually born on January 1970, making him 29 years at the time he contested and won election to the House, whereas the allowed age limit for a member of the House was 30.
Immediately these facts were made known, the Presidency [the Executive arm of government] instituted investigation into the allegations under the office of then National Security Adviser [NSA], General Aliyu Muhammad Gusau and the Presidency, having confirmed all the allegations, was at the verge of prosecuting the young man before he quickly threw in the towel. Below is the speech he read to his 259 colleagues on that august day he resigned:
“Since the hand-over of the military and the subsequent inauguration of the House of Representatives, the House has focused on meeting the hopes and aspirations of the Nigerian people. I must thank you for the great honour you conferred upon me when you elected me Speaker of this august Assembly. Since electing me, you have been virtually unanimous in your support for me. Consider therefore how sad and distressed I was, when this House and the nation was scandalized when questions were raised relating to my qualification to be a member of this House.
“The controversy generated by that issue, has greatly undermined my authority and prestige, making it difficult for me to continue in office as Speaker and member of this Honourable House. I therefore have no alternative but to resign my membership of the House which, I hereby do. I am bound, under all circumstances, to live above suspicion. It was wrong therefore for my conduct to be open to justifiable suspicion as it has been. I apologise to you. I apologise to the nation, I apologise to my family, and friends for all the distress I have caused them.
“I was led to error by the zeal to serve the nation. I trust therefore, that the nation will forgive me and give me another opportunity to serve. I still have faith in the nation and my commitment to her is greater now, seeing that I have wronged it. I have consequently advised my lawyer Chief Rotimi Williams SAN, CFR to withdraw my libel action against ‘The News’ magazine.
“Everything in life is for a purpose and my prayer is that my humiliation will illustrate that in our new democracy, no body, no matter how highly placed, will be above the law. As I look up from the ground following my fall from grace, I solemnly ask you for your forgiveness for as they say ‘The human soul is strongest when it forgoes revenge and forgives injury.’ I hope that in your own time, you will be able to offer me a helping hand.
“Permit me to seize this opportunity to express my regrets and offer my unreserved apologies to all Nigerians at home and abroad for the embarrassment this controversy has generated.
“As I leave you today, I urge you all to remember that this House has always been known for order and for positive change. It is true that we must progress from hence, but it must not be a chaotic progress, for the art of progress is to preserve order amidst change. I have no doubt therefore, that you, my brothers and sisters are equal to the task ahead.
“Finally, I wish to emphasize that the sweet memory of our short but useful time together will forever be cherished in my heart. For now, I bid you farewell and divine guidance for the rest of your tenure. I also wish you success as you labour in the cause of our country and nation building. I shall never forget your kindness to me. Please remember me in your prayers.”
The narrative above happened just 19 years ago and we have seen steps taken by all; both with the personae dramatis at the Legislature in total remorse and being apologetic even in taking the most honourable way out, and at the Executive arm of government with its genuine efforts in bringing credibility to governance was actually displayed. Nineteen years after, the same democratic government under another retired military General [Muhammadu Buhari], similar to what we had under General Olusegun Obasanjo, the modus operandi of prosecuting the same incident has changed. Let us look at what is happening first before moving into decoding the intricacy of how “corruption [which herein includes the finance minister] is fighting back” at the “APC’s holy government of Buhari”.
The Premium Times, one of the most reliable sources of information in the Nigerian Media market place today, published a well-investigated report, a few weeks ago, that the Finance Minister; Mrs Kemi Adeosun, not only failed to undertake the NYSC upon return to Nigeria from the United Kingdom (where she was born and graduated at age 22), she used a forged certificate of exemption to secure her ministerial appointment.
“This is a serious allegation that borders on criminality on two fronts: dodging service which is a constitutional infraction and forgery”, as Segun Adeniyi, the Chairman of Thisday Editorial Board put it in his column last week, before tackling the third component of the criminality, which of course is the Nigerian’s Senate angle of conspiracy of silence when the woman presented her forged paper for scrutiny at the Senate before she was confirmed. It has been alleged that the Senate knew about the problem before her confirmation hearing but left it as a weapon of blackmail for another day. Though this allegation is yet to be refuted by the Red Chamber, l am not really interested in dealing with it because there are many other things for consideration if we must catch this government at its best game of hypocrisy.
Adeosun refused to talk. The Nigeria Police Force, under an Inspector General Nigerians are not too sure either himself is a forgery or not; considering that the IGP “transmission” all his letters in a calabash of error, is keeping sealed lips by claiming that “a formal complaint has not been laid before it”. The presidency of course will not talk unless to say that “corruption is fighting back” because that is the only “gospel truth” of this derailed presidency these days.
However, as the devil would have it, a very top ranking officer of this government has come to the rescue of the Nigerian Presidency. And he is the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption [PACAC] Chairman; “the most respected and honourable Professor Itse Sagay [until he started falling from glory], a Senior Advocate of Nigeria [SAN] and a most senior teacher of law. This is what he said concerning Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s alleged involvement in certificate forgery.
“The PDP can weep from now until there is no tear in their body; she (Adeosun) is going to be there. We cannot afford to lose that woman” because 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 (Adeosun’s) expertise, her commitment, her sacrifice.”
When he was asked if it was not an offence to skip NYSC, listened to what Professor Itse Sagay said: “Who cares about youth service? I don’t bloody care whether she did youth service or not. It’s irrelevant as far as I am concerned.”
C-O-U-R-T!
This court presided over by the most dishonourable Justice Sagaga Iseaye on this case of Kemisto Ade-a-osun adjourns till next week Tuesday. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Nigerian Community, meet me here next week for delivering of judgment on this most topical case of our times.
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
Contact: godwin@thenewsguru.ng