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NYSC Disowns Kemi Adeosun’s Exemption ‘Certificate’

Published

8 years ago

July 10, 2018

Eric

The National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) has disowned the purported exemption certificate in possession of the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.

The NYSC was reacting to the exclusive story published by Premium Times on Saturday detailing how Mrs Adeosun skipped the mandatory national service and forged an exemption certificate of the service to cover for it.

The story has generated outrage from Nigerians who asked the minister to resign from her post or be fired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Details published by this newspaper on Monday show that the certificate is among the set of documents submitted by the minister for her appointment and screening in 2015.

This newspaper had taken a copy of the ‘certificate’ to the NYSC and requested the agency to determine its authenticity or otherwise. But in what is a veiled admission that the document did not emanate from it, the agency said it would investigate the origin of the certificate.

A statement by the NYSC’s director of public relations, Adenike Adeyemi, emailed to Premium Times said the service will “investigate the origin of the purported Exemption Certificate in question”.

The statement, however, said Mrs Adeosun applied for exemption. It was, however, silent on when the application was made and what decision was taken on it.

This newspaper first wrote to the NYSC on April 16, 2018 requesting verification of the certificate.

After weeks of silence and promises, the paper’s editors decided to re-channel the request through a Freedom of Information request.

This followed disappointment suffered by journalists working on the story when the formal letter that was to be issued on June 1 by the organisation was suddenly withheld.

Our reporter who was at the NYSC headquarters on Thursday, May 31, was told to come back the next day to pick up the organisation’s response to our letter, following intense checks that afternoon that confirmed that “Folakemi Adeosun” was not in the register.

However, on arriving on Friday, June 1 to pick the response, a new decision was announced: the NYSC officials said the verification has been channelled to the organisation’s ICT unit to check its “electronic database.”

The organisation then became curiously non-responsive to our request.

Before the corps went cold on it, Premium Time had made a payment of N2,000 through federal government’s Remita platform.

The Remita receipt was later swapped with an official receipt of the NYSC at the organisation’s account department. The receipt is numbered 711133.

Frustrated by the sudden back-tracking by the agency, this newspaper, on June 8, delivered a Freedom of Information request to the NYSC headquarters which is yet to be responded to.

The FoI Act mandates agencies to respond to requests within one week or write to seek extension if unable to comply within the stipulated time.

The full text of the NYSC’s statement is produced below:

PRESS RELEASE

RE-EXEMPTION CERTIFICATE OF THE HON. MINISTER OF FINANCE, MRS. KEMI ADEOSUN

Our attention has been drawn to the issue of the alleged forgery of an NYSC Exemption Certificate by the Honorable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.

Checking our records, Mrs. Adeosun did apply for an Exemption Certificate.

We shall investigate the origin of the purported Exemption Certificate in question.

Thank you.

Adeyemi Adenike (Mrs.)

Director, Press and Public Relations

Featured

Akume Leads Nigeria’s Delegation to Jesse Jackson’s Funeral in US

Published

3 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Eric

President Bola Tinubu has approved a five-person delegation to represent Nigeria at the final burial rites of Rev. Jesse Jackson, the American civil rights leader, activist and former presidential candidate who died at age 84 on February 17, 2026, in Chicago.

Senator George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, is the leader of the delegation, according to a press statement from the Presidency on Wednesday.

Other members are the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa; the Special Presidential Envoy for Global and Pan-African Affairs, Brian Browne; and the Senior Special Assistant, Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaye.

The delegation will deliver President Tinubu’s message of condolences to the Jackson family.

In an earlier tribute, President Tinubu described Reverend Jackson as a great friend of Nigeria and Africa.

“He was a moral voice and a formidable resistance to apartheid in South Africa. He played a leading role in the campaign for the release from prison of Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders. He won critical support for sanctions against the then apartheid government,” President Tinubu wrote.

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Tinubu Nominates Oyedele As Minister of State for Finance, Moves Anite-Uzoka to Budget Ministry

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga, has announced that “President Bola Tinubu has nominated Taiwo Oyedele as the minister of state for finance, replacing Doris Anite-Uzoka.

“Mrs Anite-Uzoka will now move to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, as the Minister of State, her third portfolio in the administration.

“President Tinubu has today conveyed the nomination of Mr Oyedele to the Senate for confirmation in a letter to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

“Until President Tinubu nominated him as a minister, Mr Oyedele from Ikaram, Akoko, Ondo State, was the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which overhauled Nigeria’s tax system.

“Mr Oyedele, 50, is an economist, accountant and public policy expert.

“He attended Yaba College of Technology, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in accountancy and finance. He attended Oxford Brookes University and earned a BSc in applied accounting.

“He also completed executive education programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.

“Mr Oyedele spent 22 years of his working career at PwC, joining in 2001 and rising to become the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.

“Mr Oyedele is also a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State and a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.”

Featured

Defection: Atiku’s Son, Adamu, Resigns As Adamawa Commissioner

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

Adamu Abubakar, the first son of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has resigned as Adamawa State’s commissioner for works and energy development, days after Governor Ahmadu Fintiri defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

Abubakar’s resignation letter, dated 2 March 2026, was addressed to the governor through the Secretary to the State Government. He gave no reason for his departure.

The timing is pointed. Fintiri announced his defection to the APC in a statewide broadcast last Friday, saying his cabinet and the PDP’s state structure had moved with him. Within 24 hours, 22 commissioners and special advisers publicly announced they were following suit. Abubakar, whose father remains one of the PDP’s most prominent national figures, was not among them.

In a statement issued Monday night, Abubakar’s media aide Abdulaziz Jauro said the former commissioner thanked the governor for the opportunity to serve and pledged continued loyalty to the administration’s developmental agenda. He also expressed gratitude to his father “for granting him the moral support and blessing to serve the people of Adamawa State” — a line that, read in context, suggests Atiku was consulted on the decision.

Abubakar said his resignation was not a withdrawal from public life. “This does not mark the end of his commitment to public service,” the statement read, “but rather the beginning of new avenues for developmental collaboration.”

The resignation leaves unresolved the question of whether it reflects a political break with the governor over his defection or a personal decision unconnected to the broader party realignment now reshaping Adamawa’s political landscape.