The Albino Foundation Public Notice
By Our Reporters
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has cleared the former Finance Ministers, Mrs. Kemi Adosun of the controversy over her participation or otherwise in the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo held that Adeosun did not need a certificate from NYSC to hold a elective position, adding that she was not qualified to have participated in the scheme when she graduated from a London university at 22 years, because she was then a British citizen.
According to Justice Taiwo, she said that when Adeosun returned to Nigeria, and became a Nigerian citizen, at over 30 years old, she was no longer eligible to present herself for the NYSC scheme.
The judgment was on a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/303/2021 filed and prosecuted for Adeosun by her lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as the sole defendant.
The judge noted that the plaintiff was not supposed to present herself for the NYSC scheme, because under the 1979 Constitution, which was in force at the time of her graduation, she was not a Nigerian citizen and that she became a Nigerian citizen when she was above 30 years which was beyond the age of participation in the scheme.
Justice Taiwo held that since the 1979 Constitution, which was in force at the time she graduated did not recognise dual citizenship, Adeosun could not have engaged in the NYSC scheme, because she was then a British citizen.
He added that since the extant Constitution did not require the plaintiff to present an NYSC discharge certificate to be appointed a minister, her ministerial appointment was not illegal, neither was it unconstitutional, even without presenting the NYSC certificate.
Justice Taiwo, who observed that. Adeosun graduated from the University of East London in 1989 at the age of 22, held that participation in the NYSC scheme and the possession of its discharge certificate is not a yardstick for qualification for appointment as a minister or to stand election as a member of the House of Representatives.
“The plaintiff has proved her entitlement to all the reliefs sought,” the judge said, and proceeded to grant the four reliefs sought in favour of the plaintiff.
