Attempts At Whitewashing Kemi Adeosun’s Most Embarrassing Scandal Is An Unpatriotic Exercise Against National Development—‘Jare Hammed

<p>Attempts At Whitewashing Kemi<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reproduces a piece by &OpenCurlyQuote;Jare Hammed&comma; earlier published in The Cable&comma; in which he argues that the attempt at whitewashing Kemi Adeosun’s most embarrassing scandal is an unpatriotic exercise against national development<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Recently&comma; there have been coordinated media efforts to repackage Kemi Adeosun&comma; Nigeria’s former minister of finance&comma; an exercise that appears less like public enlightenment and more like a calculated attempt at historical revisionism&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Through selective recollection and moral posturing&comma; one of the most embarrassing scandals of the Buhari administration is being reframed as an act of personal integrity rather than what it truly was&colon; a case of sustained deception that collapsed only under intense public pressure&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Adeosun’s resignation in 2018 did not occur in a vacuum&period; It followed months of public outrage over the revelation that she possessed a forged National Youth Service Corps &lpar;NYSC&rpar; exemption certificate&comma; an offence under Nigerian law&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Long before her eventual exit&comma; Nigerians demanded a clear and honest explanation&period; None came&period; Instead&comma; what unfolded was silence&comma; deflection&comma; blame-shifting&comma; and an unconvincing attempt to wait out public anger&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>In a recent interview with Laolu Akande on Channels Television&comma; Adeosun attempted a rhetorical sleight of hand&colon; she portrayed her resignation as a voluntary moral decision while simultaneously admitting that she stepped down only after it became clear that no one within government was willing&comma; or able&comma; to explain away the forgery&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>This framing insults public intelligence&period; A resignation tendered after three months of sustained pressure&comma; mounting evidence&comma; and institutional embarrassment cannot reasonably be described as a proactive moral stand&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4><strong>The facts of the case remain stubborn and inconvenient<&sol;strong><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>First&comma; Adeosun needlessly procured a forged NYSC exemption certificate&period; Whether by commission or complicity&comma; the document was fake&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Second&comma; credible media reports&comma; including TheCable of September 15&comma; 2018&comma; indicated that attempts were made to enlist senior NYSC officials to manage or neutralise the fallout once the forgery became public&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Third&comma; rather than confront the issue directly when it emerged&comma; Adeosun initially deflected responsibility&period; Fourth&comma; when the NYSC announced it would probe the matter&comma; it confirmed only that she had applied for an exemption certificate&comma; pointedly declining to state that one was validly issued&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Most tellingly&comma; Adeosun waited for three full months before resigning&period; By then&comma; the evidence was overwhelming&comma; and the silence from the government <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;thisdaylive&period;com&sol;">deafening<&sol;a>&period; The resignation came not because the truth had been courageously embraced&comma; but because it could no longer be buried&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Her justification in that interview with Laolu Akande that she was not a Nigerian citizen at the time she graduated and therefore was not eligible for NYSC service only deepens the puzzle&period; If that explanation is true&comma; then there was absolutely no need to seek an exemption certificate at all&comma; let alone a forged one&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>That she did so points to a deeper and more troubling pattern&colon; the normalisation of cutting corners among Nigeria’s elite&comma; secure in the belief that consequences are for the poor and powerless&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>It is against this background that Adeosun’s recent pontification on Nigeria’s economy&comma; including her robust defence of economic policies of the current administration&comma; must be viewed&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>It is difficult to ignore the timing of this renewed visibility amid rumours and permutations within power corridors to bring Adeosun back to government&period; Whatever her intentions&comma; the optics are clear&colon; this is an attempt at whitewashing a past misdemeanour that goes to the heart of public trust&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Public office is not merely about technical competence&period; It demands unimpeachable integrity&period; Adeosun’s record fails that test&period; A person who falsified credentials&comma; evaded accountability&comma; and resigned only when cornered cannot credibly present herself as fit for high public trust again&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Nigeria is not short of competent&comma; qualified people to hold public office&period; The country boasts several respected professionals with solid credentials and untainted records&period; The current administration already boasts a number of brilliant hands shaping the country’s economy&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>At a time when Nigeria is grappling with economic hardship and a crisis of confidence in leadership&comma; we must resist the temptation to recycle discredited figures simply because they once held office&period; National memory must not be so short&comma; nor standards so low&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Adeosun’s media tour of repackaging should not be mistaken for redemption&period; Accountability delayed is accountability denied&period; Nigeria deserves better&comma; and the future of public service must rest on competence anchored firmly to character&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;27836" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-27836" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-27836" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2024&sol;12&sol;President-Buhari-300x221&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Attempt At Whitewashing Kemi Adeosun’s Most Embarrassing Scandal Is An Unpatriotic Exercise Against National Development--- &OpenCurlyQuote;Jare Hammed" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"221" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-27836" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Late President Buhari<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;