Groups, including the Campaign for Democracy and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, have scolded the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, for not participating in the mandatory National Youth Service Corps scheme.
They noted that the minister’s public service life without an NYSC certificate must be investigated.
An online newspaper, Premium Times, had exclusively reported on Thursday that Shittu skipped the mandatory national youth service, an offence that could make him lose his position and get jail term.
According to the report, Shittu immediately after his graduation was elected as a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly in 1979. He was reported to have said that his membership of the state assembly was a national service.
The CD President, Usman Abdul, said, “I think something is wrong with this administration. Look at the calibre of people that surround the President all having certificate issues. This is not good for our country. Look at the long time that it took the President to assemble these ministers together and they were still not adequately screened.
Also the SERAP Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, said, “The minister has stated his side and the needful must be done. If he served as a corps member at the Oyo State House of Assembly, he would be collecting stipends and not salaries. But to have got a job at the house, collect salaries and to claim that he did that as his own NYSC; this is wrong.”
On his part, the Coordinator, Youths Initiative for Diversity in Nigeria, Ibrahim Sadiq, said the minister had no justification for not going for national service.
According to him, Shittu’s explanation that he thought his election as state assembly member equated national service was untenable.
Sadiq said, “It is not right, he has no justification not to serve. If someone makes the same argument, will he accept such explanation? Under normal circumstances, he should be fired by the government.
“President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC should demonstrate their change agenda by sacking the minister.”
But Shittu in an interview with journalists in Abuja, on Friday said it would be wrong for anyone to compare his case to that of former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun because whereas the NYSC certificate she presented was forged, he didn’t obtain the certificate at all.
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