President
Muhammadu Bubari should not allow the certificate scandal surrounding one of
his ministers, Kemi Adeosun, to die, senior lawyers and some Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs) have said.
Since July
6 when an online news platform, Premium Times, broke the news of Adeosun’s
alleged forgery of her exemption certificate for the National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC), the relevant bodies, especially the NYSC, which is saddled with
the responsibility of clearing the air on the matter, have been dilly-dallying.
Adeosun
herself has maintained silence on the matter ever since, and she has tactically
avoided the press for weeks now. The last time she appeared personally in the
media was a day before the story broke when she spoke on the Federal Account
Allocation Committee’s matter.
Sources
told Daily Trust that although Buhari had ordered NYSC to probe the matter,
there have been attempts to allow it die down, without the government taking
any decisive action.
But some
senior lawyers, CSOs and politicians said Buhari must act quickly to redeem his
image of a man of integrity as the Adeosun matter appears to be affecting his
government negatively.
NYSC itself has not been forthcoming
with much information on the matter as the agency issued a terse statement at
the initial stage of the story’s publication, saying the minister indeed
applied for the exemption certificate but that the matter would be investigated
to ascertain who issued the one said to have been forged.
A senior
government official told Daily Trust on Sunday that the matter has become a big
problem for the government, especially now that the 2019 elections are
approaching.
The top
government official said the president usually takes long to decide on matters
like this as in the case of former Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF) David Babachir Lawal.
But the
source said they were also aware that it may be a political calculation that is
fuelling the matter as the minister is a nominee of the Ogun State Governor,
Ibikunle Amosun, who may also have ambitions for 2023.
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