From the way the federal government is hedging over the saga of the forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, it is clear that the felony is enjoying condonation by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari; otherwise, the matter should have been decisively dealt with by now and consigned to the dustbin of history. Or, put differently, Adeosun should have, by now, become history.
But this is not the situation. The minister, who is in the eye of the storm, has taken refuge in feigned meekness and has, in fact, continued to benefit from the paraphernalia of her office, perhaps, in the hope that the matter will die naturally. This is not only nauseating but also treating Nigerians with disdain. It is obvious that the administration is acting true to type, either mollycoddling wrongdoers or vacillating before giving them the boot. Adeosun is, without a doubt, being pampered; this is, perhaps, the reason she has not deemed it fit to show remorse.
And, the only way to show remorse in the circumstance of her prima facie felony is to recuse herself from the federal cabinet. It is not by wearing a puffy and straight face, the kind that I saw on television on Monday, July 16, when she was on the entourage of the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to Abeokuta where the second citizen had gone to inspect the destruction caused by flood in the state capital. She stood right behind the vice president and Governor Ibikunle Amosun like a bedraggled chicken whose rump had been exposed by the wind that blew; yes, like someone shorn of self confidence.
Watchers of the administration have tried to rationalise the reasons some felonies had been tolerated and their perpetrators pampered by the administration while a few had been shown the way out of government. Recall the seeming puritanical mission of Adeosun at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) where she saddled herself with the task of clearing the Augean stables by removing the Director-General, Alhaji Mounir Gwarzo, for alleged financial misconduct. Rewind: she simply did not have the morality to do that in the first instance, but she wrongfully claimed occupation of the moral high ground.
It is quite sad that the removal of Gwarzo had her imprimatur despite the fact that she herself had run afoul of extant constitutional provisions on mobilisation for national service by the NYSC by forging or predisposing herself to have a certificate of exemption forged for her by a third party. It does not matter whether she was aware of the third party’s action of forgery or not. The argument around the forgery that is being canvassed along that odious theme by her hirelings in the media, including some lawyers, was neither here nor there. It would be absurd to join issues with them because their positions were, ab-initio, bereft of logic.
Adeosun and her rearguards should have known that she was not, ab-intio, qualified for an exemption, having graduated when she was 22 years old. She would have been qualified for exemption if she had graduated at over 30 years of age. Since that was not the case, what she should have done, in the circumstance, as provided for in the NYSC Act, was to present herself to the authorities of the NYSC for mobilisation and not to go looking for an exemption certificate or letter to which she was not entitled. Looking for an exemption certificate and getting scammed in the process were consequent upon the mensrea of deceit and false representation of who she was not. Having been caught in the actus reus of forgery evidenced by the forged document, she is essentially complicit and culpable.
It is, therefore, not enough that Adeosun is under intense pressure to do the needful by resigning; Nigerians, especially those who compulsorily served the nation on the NYSC platform, should sustain a countrywide advocacy to ensure that she gets her just recompense. If the administration does not ensure that she is sanctioned in accordance, the Nigerian people should punish the administration for aiding, abetting and condoning crime and criminality. That is how Nigerians can place accountability demand on the Buhari administration.
This matter should not be swept under the carpet. Adeosun should consider it morally compelling and expedient in the circumstance to resign honourably. With the benefit of the Gwarzo saga, it would be unfair to allow Adeosun to escape some form of sanction. Even if the administration does not want to press charges against her in court, she should be advised to egress the government quietly or be forced out. Something must be discounted from her individuality. After all, if what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, then Adeosun’s wrongdoing should not be overlooked for whatever considerations.
There cannot be two standards for weighing wrongdoings or corrupt acts by government officials. It should be morally obligatory for Nigerians to ensure they pursue this matter to the end. President Muhammadu Buhari is hereby called upon to consider the potential damage the Adeosun forgery incident would, by and large, cause his administration if she is not shown the way out. An administration that has already been battered as a result of the conducts of some officials whose hands had either been caught in the cookie jars of crime or still have monumental evidence of corruption hanging on their necks, can ill-afford to condone this egregious felony.
Adeosun’s presence in the cabinet, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for obvious reasons, would continue to cast a slur on the government and create the impression that some felons are possibly sacred cows. Whereas, the administration, with Buhari as its face, has no reasons to bungle opportunities to unequivocally register its aversion to and stamp its magisterial revulsion against corruption in all its variegated nuances; the goodwill it enjoyed at the outset is being consistently eroded.
It is baffling what exactly has jinxed the administration that it is allowing histories to repeat themselves, first, as tragedies and, second, as farces, permit me to adopt, adapt and paraphrase the eternal lines of Karl Marx. The Goodluck Jonathan administration allowed so many infractions and wrongdoings by officials to go unpunished. Those who should have been thrown out of government were retained and pampered to the chagrin and irritation of Nigerians. A disenchanted public turned against the administration and the outcome was the historic defeat of a sitting president for the first time in the annals of Nigeria’s presidential elections.
One had expected that Buhari would have been overwhelmed by righteous anger over confirmed cases of felonies in his administration. But it has not been exactly so. It is shocking that the president could even sleep or vacillate over such confirmed cases by his appointees before taking actions, and that is if actions are taken at all. This disposition has only tended to embolden administration’s officials to dare the superintending or ultimate authority of the president.
When some officials in the administration who have committed wrongful acts are being condoned, it certainly creates the impression of a compromised government or binary leadership of an ineffectual authority. That appears to be the perception that is sustaining Adeosun’s audacity to subject the entire nation to collective disdain, perhaps, knowing full well that the president would not act decisively against her. However, it is also, somewhat, a measure of how hardened she has become against the necessities of truth and morality. And the cosmopolitan reality that someone who superintends our finance ministry is morally deficient is, sadly, writ large; and, this does not speak well of the Buhari administration.
By Sufuyan Ojeifo
*Sufuyan Ojeifo is a commentator on public issuesojwonderngr@yahoo.com
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