It is wrong to be minister while serving — NYSC tells Musawa

The Director, Press and Public Relations of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Eddy Megwa, 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 in breach of the NYSC Act.

Speaking with our reporter over the phone, Megwa confirmed that the minister had been serving for the past eight months in the FCT.

He explained that it was against the NYSC Act for any corps member to pick up any government appointment until the one-year service was over.

He said 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.

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He said it was when she got to Kaduna that she absconded and didn’t complete the programme.

Megwa noted that the scheme would look into the issue and take action where necessary.

Lawyers react

Reacting, Abeny Mohammed (SAN) said the action was a breach of the NYSC Act which 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.

Mohammed said, “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.”

Similarly, Femi Falana (SAN) said it was a violation of the law for anybody to still be serving in the NYSC and accept a ministerial appointment.

In a statement titled: “A Youth Corps Member is not Competent to be a Minister in Nigeria”, 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.”