By Ishola Kayode
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has said that the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mrs. Hannatu Musawa, who is currently doing her one-year youth service, is occupying the ministerial position against extant NYSC Law.
According to the NYSC Director, Press and Public Relations of Eddy Megwa, the minister had been serving for the past eight months in the FCT.
Megea stated that it was against the NYSC Act for any corps member to pick up any government appointment until the one-year service was over.
According to him, Mrs. Musawa was originally mobilised in 2001 for the youth service to Ebonyi State where she had her orientation programme but later relocated to Kaduna State to continue the programme.
It was when she got to Kaduna that she absconded and didn’t complete the programme, he further clarified.
The NYSC spokesman said that the scheme would look into the issue and take action where necessary.
Meanwhile, lawyers have been reacting to the unfolding development. According to legal luminary Femi Falana (SAN), it was a violation of the law for anybody to still be serving in the NYSC and accept a ministerial appointment.
Falana said by virtue of Section 2 of the NYSC Act every citizen who graduated from any tertiary institution in and outside Nigeria and was not 30 years old shall be mobilised for the one-year compulsory national youth service, while any person above 30 was not eligible to participate in the service,” Falana held in a statement titled: “A Youth Corps Member is not Competent to be a Minister in Nigeria.”
On his part, Abeny Mohammed (SAN) stated that the action was a breach of the NYSC Act which clearly stated that nobody would be legally employed or offer themselves for employment without doing the service and presenting the certificate or would have been exempted and had the certificate of exemption.
His words: “The situation we have at hand is that this person is still serving as a corper and she has been appointed a minister. It shows the inconsistency in our policies and disregard for our laws.”
