... the Abba Kyari Involment
It has emerged that embattled Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, may have tendered her resignation letter nearly a month earlier but was held on to by Chief of Staff to the President (CoS), Abba Kyari.
The source also stated that the CoS persuaded Adeosun to hold on for a while longer only to release the correspondence later as measure to counteracting the media buzz over sack of Matthew Seiyefa, Acting Director General (DG), Department of State Services (DSS), and his replacement with another Northerner, Yusuf Magaji Bichi.
Unconfirmed report on Friday, on some media online portal, hinted at the Minister’s resignation over the three- month-old controversy involving her alleged forgery of exemption certificate of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Both her ministry and the Presidency have refused to refute nor confirm the story despite repeated calls to Yinka Akintunde, Chief Media Adviser to the Minister and the duo of Femi Adesina, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity and his Deputy, Garba Shehu.
In the case of both Presidency aides, calls were also supported with text messages that were not responded to as at the time of filing this report.
In a highly damaging expose by an online newspaper, the Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Adeosun, was reported to have declined participating in the mandatory one-year national youth service scheme after schooling in UK.
Instead, according to the report, she forged an exemption certificate many years after graduation which qualified her for the ministerial appointment.
The year-long service, organised by the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), is compulsory for all Nigerians who graduate from universities or equivalent institutions at less than 30 years of age.
In addition to being a requirement for government and private sector jobs in Nigeria, the enabling law prescribes punishment for anyone who absconds from the scheme or forges its certificates. Eligible Nigerians who skipped the service are liable to be sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Finding at the Finance Ministry headquarters in Abuja, on Friday, showed largely unruffled staffers going about their duties without any much of hint of tension that such news normally provokes. Some staffers told the newspaper too, that the minister was still at her office working.
By protocol, when a minister resigns the letter is forwarded to the Presidency through the CoS, and such official begin handing over procedures to the permanent secretary of the Ministry. While normal activities went on at the ministry on Friday, the paper gathered that Adeosun had actually offered to resign and had followed up with a letter to the effect.
“She handed the letter to the Chief of Staff who had then prevailed on her to hold it off until after the election in 2019,” explained the source from the ministry.
The newspaper was further informed that news of the resignation may have been released as a measure to take away steam from the raging controversy of newly appointed DSS boss at the expense of Seiyefa, who hails from Bayelsa.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been serially accused of nepotism in his appointments especially in the areas of security.
Bichi, the newly appointed DSS DG, enlisted in the defunct National Security Organisation (NSO) in 1982. He retired after 35 years of service in 2017 as Daura’s Finance & Admin Director but was retained by Lawal Daura (the former DG sacked by vice president Yemi Osinbajo while Buhari was on short leave in London) for a few months and then released February 2018.
0 Comments