NYSC: Court Clears Ex-Finance Minister, Adeosun, Says She Did Not Need It

By Ayodele Oni

Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has been cleared of any breach of the law for taken up Ministerial appointment without evidence of participating in the National Youths Service Corps, (NYSC) scheme.

Mrs Adeosun was the first Minister of Finance, appointed during the first tenure of the present administration.

She  voluntarily resigned her appointment, following Media reports that she not only evaded the NYSC service year after her graduation from a foreign university, but forged and presented a forged certificate of discharge purported to have been issued to her by the NYSC.

But a Federal High Court in Abuja,  on Wednesday, ruled that the former Finance Minister did not need the NYSC discharge certificate to take up any Ministerial appointment or any elective office in the country.

The court held that Mrs Adeosun, who graduated in a London University in 1989, was already 36 years of age, therefore, exempted from participating in the NYSC scheme.

The judgment ‎was on a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/303/2021 filed by Mrs Adeosun, with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as the sole defendant.

Delivering judgment in the suit, Justice Taiwo Oladipupo Taiwo, held that Adeosun, from available facts, was a United Kingdom citizen, having been born in the UK in 1967, and remained there till 2003 when she came back to Nigeria.

Justice Taiwo held that Adeosun became a Nigerian citizen by virtue of the 1999 Constitution, which came into force on May 29 of the year, therefore, the NYSC Act will have no effect on her.

The Judge pointed out that Adeosun would have committed a grave crime against Nigeria, if she had participated in the NYSC, having attained the exemption age of 36 years.