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.
*Kemi Adeosun |
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
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
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 exemption certificate and
getting scammed in the process were consequent upon the mens rea 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.
*Sufuyan Ojeifo is a commentator on public issuesojwonderngr@yahoo.com
*Sufuyan Ojeifo is a commentator on public issuesojwonderngr@yahoo.com
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