Integrity and a season of fake certificates

Azuka Onwuka

The dust over the resignation of the erstwhile Minister of
Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, had not died down before another story
broke that the Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, did
not undergo the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps
scheme. However, unlike the case of Adeosun, which was treated with
silence until her resignation about a week ago, Shittu immediately
responded, acknowledging that he did not participate in the
programme.

But his excuse was curious. He said he was elected a member of
the Oyo State House of Assembly in 1979 immediately he finished
from the Law School, and by serving as a legislator, which he saw
as “a higher service,” he had already served his fatherland as
required by the constitution. His words: “There is a whole world of
difference (between my case and Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s case).
Unfortunately, Kemi had a fake certificate. I didn’t present any. I
didn’t have one. I simply followed the constitutional requirement
that if you are qualified to contest an election, it is compulsory
for you to serve the nation in the capacity that you won an
election”.

But the law is clear on the three categories of people to be
exempted from the NYSC service: (1) Those who graduated after their
30th birthday; (2) Those who have served in the military or the
police or intelligence agencies for at least nine months; (3).
Those conferred with national honours before graduation.

In her response on the issue, the spokesperson for the National
Youth Service Corps, Adenike Adeyemi, faulted Shittu’s claim that
holding an elective office suffices for the compulsory national
service. Stressing that the NYSC gives no preferences to people
because of social or political status, Adeyemi said: “If you are a
graduate locally trained or foreign trained, as long as you
graduate before the age of 30, you are expected to serve. Whether
foreign or locally trained, the law is the same.”

The provision of the NYSC is clear and it states that every
Nigerian graduate must serve the nation for one year before any
form of employment in the public sector in the federation. The
implication is that Shittu has been breaching the law of Nigeria
since 1979 (39 years) when he became a legislator. It is also
surprising that he was cleared as a minister of the federation with
no NYSC certificate.

Before this revelation and even before the Adeosun scandal, it
had been alleged that Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Prosecutions, used a forged secondary
school certificate to gain admission to study law at the University
of Jos in 1985. While the original result he obtained from school
showed that he was absent for the Literature-in-English exam, the
result he used to gain admission said he had a C6 in
Literature-in-English. Literature-in-English is compulsory for
students seeking admission into law in Nigerian universities.
Testifying before the House of Representatives ad hoc panel
investigating Obono-Obla’s alleged forgery in June 2018, WAEC
registrar, represented by the deputy registrar, Femi Ola, told the
committee that available evidence showed that the results in the
certificate presented by Obono-Obla were altered and therefore
invalid. Curiously, three months after that official confirmation,
nothing has been done by the government. Obono-Obla has not been
suspended or sacked; neither has the administration of President
Muhammadu Buhari confirmed that the report over his certificate is
false. It is worrisome that this is an administration that prides
itself on its zero tolerance for corruption and fraud.

One wonders why President Buhari finds it difficult to act
decisively on issues that bring a bad image to his administration.
What would he lose by promptly suspending or sacking Obono-Obla who
was never known to have helped to sway any state election in
Buhari’s favour in 2015? There is no evidence that the presence of
Obono-Obla as an aide to Buhari will add any major significance to
Buhari’s electoral fate in 2019. On the contrary, retaining Obla
has helped to dent the image of Buhari and portray him as a leader
who does not keep his word on integrity.

The sad part of this is that these ministers and aides were the
same people that took the President six months of meticulous search
to pick after his inauguration in May 2015. From one minister to
the other and one aide to another, the nation is constantly treated
to one ridiculous statement or the other or one scandal or the
other. From the tenure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as President in
1999 to the tenure of Dr Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, there are
usually ministers and heads of some agencies that shine brightly
and bring some goodwill to the president who appointed them.

For example, during Obasanjo’s tenure, Prof Dora Akunyili shone
as the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control, reforming Nigeria’s drug industry;
Mallam Nasir el-Rufai shone as the Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, bringing Abuja back to its original plan; Prof Charles
Soludo shone as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,
supervising the consolidation of the banks; Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
shone as the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commision,
fighting the big guns that perpetrated financial crimes; while Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala shone as the Minister of Finance, negotiating
the debt forgiveness from the Paris Club for Nigeria.

Although Yar’Adua’s tenure was short-lived, one can still
remember the strides of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Governor
of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who ensured that the banking sector
did not collapse, as well as Mrs Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru as the
Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, who revolutionised
tax-collection, especially with the introduction of Taxpayer
Identification Number.

Similarly, during the tenure of Jonathan, Dr Akinwumi Adesina as
Minister of Agriculture shone like a million stars and turned that
sector around; Prof Attahiru Jega as Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission made people have faith in the
electoral process because of the transparency he brought into it;
Prof Barth Nnaji as the Minister of Power made an impact in our
electricity sector before his exit and replacement by Prof Chinedu
Nebo, who sustained Nnaji’s efforts; Mr Mike Onolememen as the
Minister of Works displayed some flashes; Mrs Stella Oduah as
Minister of Aviation achieved the CAT 1 status for Nigeria, a
testimony to the upgrade in that sector that saved Nigeria from the
rampant air crashes that faced the nation before that period, in
spite of the bulletproof car scandal that trailed her later.

Conversely, under the administration of Buhari, not much is
heard from his ministers, except for the occasional flashes from Mr
Babatunde Raji Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, and
Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture. Even other ministers
like Dr Chris Ngige and Mr Chibuike Amaechi, who had shown the
capacity to make a difference when they were governors of Anambra
and Rivers states respectively, seem either assigned the wrong
portfolios or not given the free hand to operate.