Another cabinet member of President Muhammadu Buhari has been found to have skipped the mandatory national youth service scheme (NYSC), an offence that may see him lose his position and earn him jail term.
Adebayo Shittu
The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, failed to participate in the NYSC scheme despite graduating from the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) at age 25. Why?
Months of discreet checks at the NYSC headquarters showed that the communications minister did not present himself for service after graduation and is yet to do so till date.
Contacted on Tuesday, Mr. Shittu admitted that he did not serve but claimed he thought his first political post after graduation could suffice as national service, a claim lawyers and NYSC insiders consider as ludicrous and untenable.
Rather than enlist in the national service, Mr Shittu went into politics after graduation, and was, in 1979, elected member of the Oyo State House of Assembly.
The minister said he believed that having been elected lawmaker, he needed not participate in the national service.
Read Also: Buhari accepts Kemi Adeosun’s Resignatiom, appoints Zainab Ahmed (See Details)
“The constitution provides for the qualification needed for state assembly members, NYSC is not there,” Mr. Shittu said. “I didn’t need it to become a member of the state assembly, and that is already a service,” he said.
Mr Shittu disagreed with the reporter who laboured to explain to him that the NYSC Act makes participation in the scheme mandatory for all graduates like him and that election or appointment to political office does not qualify as a basis for exemption.day, persons with national honours and individuals who serve in the military and intelligence organisations.
