By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

WERE Kemi Adeosun not beyond shame, she should have been grateful as a beneficiary of the criminal comforts that the Buhari administration firmly instituted in Nigeria – and kept quiet about her part in it.

If Nigeria were not in a declining moment, the police should have pulled Mrs. Adeosun in for questioning about the NYSC certificate. It is not late, but unlikely in a government that has no interest in the fidelity of certificates its members parade.

Could it be an undeclared APC policy for its best and brightest to thrive on questionable certificates?

Playing fully to the role of a victim in a crime that should have put her in jail and rescue the public from puerile tales of her innocence, she keeps disturbing Nigerians with stories that prove how far desperation got her. Does she want another chance?

Each time we are about to forget a certain Kemi, and her NYSC certificate, Mrs. Adeosun forcefully reminds us that she got away with the crime.

Was Mrs. Adeosun innocent of the allegation that she had serially paraded a fake NYSC certificate from her days as a Commissioner of Finance in Ogun State? Was the certificate different from what she presented as Buhari’s Minister of Finance?

Does she need to be reminded that when the scandal broke in 2018 she could only mumble incoherent answers before seeking refuge abroad? Has she forgotten?

Let’s remind her.

The issue is not whether Mrs. Adeosun had a certificate of exemption or not. What cost her the office as Minister of Finance was her forged certificate of exemption. The certificate was forged. If she does not know, forgery is a crime!

NYSC, the issuing authority, said it was not the source of the document. Mrs. Adeosun could not explain how she got it.

For three months after the story broke, Mrs. Adeosun dragged her malodorous presence around thinking she could ride the storm. She became an embarrassment at meetings. She only resigned after she was barred from official meetings.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo ruled in Adeosun’s favour in a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. The court determined that an NYSC certificate was not a requirement for appointment as a Minister or to contest an election.

Adeosun uses the court decision to shore up her discounted integrity. Forgery, her crime, was never presented before the court as the APC Federal Government had no interest in prosecuting her.

How could it when Buhari was battling to convince Nigerians that he had a 1961 secondary certificate that the only evidence of was a Statement of Result that Kaduna State Ministry of Education issued? A litter reminder, Katsina was created in 1987, 26 years after Buhari took the said examination.

West African Examination Council, WAEC, issued Buhari an attestation letter in November 2018.

Nigeria has been through things.

Summing up her reasons for not serving since she graduated abroad at 22 – the law approves exemption from 30 years – Adeosun affirmed, “The 1979 constitution made it very clear. This woman is not or was not at the material time a Nigerian. And the constitution, of course, is the highest law. So once the constitution says you’re not a Nigerian, then you’re not subject to Nigerian laws.”

The issue has never been the status of her citizenship. She could have had a valid reason for not serving. What we are dealing with is completely different.

Adeosun lied. She finds new lies to cover a crime – forgery. She presented a forged NYSC certificate of exemption at least twice. Absurd stories that she weaves around a non-existent integrity could only occasion more ruination for her.

She is the only known member of the organised criminal ring that produced the forged NYSC certificate she presented when she was being screened as a Minister.

The Innocent Adeosun presented the same document earlier when she served as the Commissioner of Finance in Ogun State. There was no furore over the document in Ogun State because those who wanted her as Commissioner allegedly facilitated it.

Mrs. Adeosun reportedly got into trouble with her sponsors when on becoming Minister of Finance, she no longer took their calls. They kept reminding her of the unwholesome document and went public when she ignored them.

Why does she keep bothering the public with new versions of her dented innocence?

When will she sue those who got her into this jam? What would she sue them for?

“I’m not confused about the fact that I had powerful enemies who I believed saw an opportunity. Let’s get rid of her?”, Adeosun, told Laolu Akande in Inside Source, a programme broadcast on Channels TV.

The former Minister of Finance was forced to resign after Boss Mustapha, then Secretary to Government of the Federation investigated the Premium Times story of her forged NYSC certificate and NYSC confirmed the document was fake.

Mrs. Adeosun admitted the forgery in her resignation letter of 14 September 2018.

“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,” Adeosun wrote in her resignation letter.

“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.”

She blamed associates who procured the document for the infraction.

When will Adeosun stop regurgitating new versions of her layers of lies? Shouldn’t she be grateful for the compromised system that made it possible for her not to have served a jail term?

Time is up for Kemi Adeosun and her version of integrity. It is still on record that she admitted presenting a forged NYSC certificate.

Finally…

AN accident that killed two of Anthony Joshua’s associates has been the reason for concerns about safety on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, LIE. How many have died from accidents on the same road? Have these deaths in any way addressed the bad curves and uneven surfaces that result in tankers ladened with petroleum products turning over and bursting into flames? We now know that there no facilities for medical services or rescue of victims on LIE. Our hypocrisy only gets better daily. The fact that Anthony Joshua was involved may change safety and emergency services on LIE while other roads can have all the accidents they can.

VENEZUELA has the sort of complications that only generate new debates about the sanctity of sovereignty and cures for a dictator like Maduro, and the bully Donald Trump, whose infantile praises of his decision to invade Venezuela hint at uncertainties about his mental health. So-called leaders, rather oppressors, should learn from the humiliation of Maduro, so say, well-deserved.

TALKING about lessons, Barrister Ezewoke Nyesom Wike, the claimant of Rivers State, and everything therein, is too far gone to remember sometimes that he is still a human being. He is cock-sure about tomorrow and prescribes future outcomes. Wike with a withering hold on everything plays the god of tomorrow. A stranded Wike is pushing his troops to impeach Governor Simi Fubara. What did the people of Rivers do to deserve the chaos their State has become?

NOTHING has stopped the killing of farmers and travellers in Benue and Plateau States. More States are getting into these sad situations. The number of the dead seems too low to elicit government’s action. Of course, the President is on holiday in Europe, eleven days into 2026. His solution is to give challenges a distance as he focuses on getting re-elected.

CONGRATULATIONS Super Eagles for moving moments you offered in the 2-0 victory over Algeria. You can beat Morocco, rather, you will beat Morocco. Thanks new skipper Wilfred Ndidi qho offered to pay the team’s outstanding bonuses for earlier matches won in this AFCON when threats of a boycott was distracting preparations for the tie with Algeria.

•ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues.

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