But on my part, I have enormous respect for honourable people and Mrs Kemi Adeosun, Nigeria’s Finance Minister who took the path of honour to resign from office last Friday on the allegations of forgery of her National Youth Service (NYSC) exemption certificate. Since then, tongues have been wagging. The opposition parties have been shouting hoax. They have been say all sorts of things. This remains the beauty of democracy.
Given the rot and decay that our society has been known lately, Kemi Adeosun needs to be celebrated and not vilified. Nigeria currently needs men and women of honour who, when they find themselves in controversial situations and are confronted with the truth they submit and bow out honourably.
Kemi Adeosun reminds me of Honourable Salisu Buhari, former Speaker of the House of representatives. He resigned from office in 1999 after it was discovered that he forged his university certificate from Toronto University. He was later on charged to court and convicted for certificate forgery and sentenced to two years in prison with an option of fine. That was also when something was left of the integrity of our nation.
In the Nigeria of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, such characters would not resign. They would hold unto their guns and continue to hold public office. Several examples abound. The former Minister of Petroleum resources under the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was the biggest conduit which the PDP used to drain the nation’s huge oil revenue as has been proven by several investigative and administrative panels. She looted the nation dry. Such a big fat thief was accused severally of looting the nation. President Goodluck Jonathan kept quiet and ignored all investigations and cry of Nigerians. She was even more powerful than the president because she held the jugular of the nation. Where is she today? The PDP also kept quiet and continually defended her.
What about the former special security adviser to the president, Sambo Dasuki? He was the Managing Director of the looters’ Bank! She receives billions of dollars fron Diezieani Madueke and distributes in millions to PDP chieftains and they used all those money to try to compromise the 2015 general elections so that the thieving could continue. They even went to the extent of looting the returned Abacha loot. $500million Abacha loot was relooted by the thieving PDP gang and none of them resigned. Surprising even when caught pants down they are still denying.
Interestingly, Nigerians rose to the occasion and rejected them at the polls. What about the PDP National Secretary, Olisah Metuh who was accused of receiving N500million from Dasuki? He was arrested, and he refused that he did not collect any money. But Dasuki who gave him money confessed him and provided evidence. When he was confronted with the truth, he has been singing Hosana, Hosana. Did he resign as PDP National Secretary in the face of the confrontation with the truth? He did not. He stuck to his guns that he was not a thief.
The same shameless PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who had commended Kemi Adeosun for towing the path of honour, suddenly veered off track and called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of Adeosun “for forging her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Exemption Certificate in addition to alleged impropriety and abuse of office as minister.”
The alarmist party also raised a false alarm of “plots by the Federal Government to secretly move Adeosun out of the country following her resignation.”
The truth be told. All through the period the allegations against Kemi Adeosun were flying around she didn’t know that the certificate that was issued to her which is just an exemption certificate was forged by persons she trusted took her application to the NYSC on her return from the UK where she was born and lived all her life. The same persons knew it was a forged certificate the made her to receive and were actually the same persons who blew the whistle on her because she did not allow them to come and steal from the public till as they have always done with previous administrations.
In her words of resignation to President Buhari: “I have, today, become privy to the findings of the investigation into the allegation made in an online medium that the Certificate of Exemption from National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) that I had presented was not genuine. This has come as a shock to me and I believe that in line with this administration’s focus on integrity, I must do the honourable thing and resign.
“Your Excellency, kindly permit me to outline some of the background to this matter. I was born and raised in the United Kingdom, indeed my parental family home remains in London. My visits to Nigeria up until the age of thirty-four (34) were holidays, with visas obtained in my UK passport. I obtained my first Nigerian passport at the age of thirty-four (34) and when I relocated there was debate as to whether NYSC Law applied to me. Upon enquiry as to my status relating to NYSC, I was informed that due to my residency history and having exceeded the age of thirty (30), I was exempted from the requirement to serve. Until recent events, that remained my understanding.
“On the basis of that advice and with the guidance and assistance of those, I thought were trusted associates, NYSC were approached for documentary proof of status. I then received the certificate in question. Having never worked in NYSC, visited the premises, been privy to nor familiar with their operations, I had no reason to suspect that the certificate was anything but genuine. Indeed, I presented that certificate at the 2011 Ogun State House of Assembly and in 2015 for Directorate of State Services (DSS) Clearance as well as to the National Assembly for screening. Be that as it may, as someone totally committed to a culture of probity and accountability I have decided to resign with effect from Friday, 14th September 2018.”
All these goes to show that she was just set up by desperate politicians who would put such traps around individuals who they hope to use to siphon the nation. But they were disappointed that Kemi did not submit to their wishes to loot the nation. So, I salute Kemi Adeosun even as she falls. She ordinarily ought to have been more careful by handling such sensitive issue of certificate, which is mere exemption personally and not put it in the hands of anyone, let alone desperate politicians. This is a lesson for upcoming politicians to be more cautious and circumspect of those they opt to work with.
Nobody, not even the PDP should make any noise about Adeosun’s saga. If the APC was not a party that purges itself of corrupt people, it would not have set up an inquest into the allegations against Adeosun in the first place. She knew that President Muhammadu Buhari would definitely fire her with the outcome of the investigation that was why she resigned honourably which is the right thing to do.
PDP thieves ought to emulate the example of Kemi Adeosun. They should hold a national conference and tell all their members who looted the nation to return all the loot so that the APC administration can use the returned loot to continue to rebuild Nigeria.
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• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Edo State.
