On 7 July, 2018 Nigerian online newspaper Premium Times broke the story that Adeosun had illegally obtained her NYSC exemption certificate to get into public office.
On 9 July, NYSC Director of Press and Public relations, Adeyemi Adenike released a statement that confirmed that Adeosun legitimately submitted a request for an exemption certificate, but also stated that investigations were still ongoing to verify the approval of the exemption certificate.
On 14 September, 2018, Adeosun resigned as Minister of Finance due to the alleged NYSC Certificate forgery scandal.
The recent resignation of the erstwhile Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun over ‘forged’ NYSC Exemption certificate scandal has re-opened lack of proper checks of top politicians in Nigeria.
From Adeosun’s resignation letter, she did not apply for a Nigerian passport until her 34th birthday when she officially became a Nigerian citizen by parentage.
A reliable source hinted that Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state employed Adeosun from Chapel Hill Denham Management in Lagos in 2011, a company owned by the former Finance Commissioner in Lagos state, Mr.Wale Edun.
“Governor Amosun cannot claim total ignorance over this NYSC certificate scandal. He did not invite Kemi Adeosun from England to Nigeria, he only headhunted her from Wale Edun’s company to become a Finance Commissioner in Ogun state.The controversial NYSC Exemption certificate under question was quickly manufactured through illegal means during the Ogun State Assembly clearing process
for all Governor’s political nominees.In all fairness, Kemi was not aware that the certificate was forged.I can tell you this bitter truth.When Kemi worked with Wale Edun, nobody asked for her NYSC certificate because she was over 30 years of age when she started work with Denham and later became the company’s Managing Director.”
The source further stressed that 51-year old Kemi Adeosun was not aware that her NYSC Exemption certificate was forged until Premium Times broke the story about 3 months ago and she quickly approached Governor Ibikunle Amosun for the way out, not knowing ‘His Excellency’ was behind the scandal.
“Kemi Adeosun in her letter of resignation stated that all those associates she trusted so much betrayed her. That’s a loaded conscience-pricking message for Amosun and others who stabbed her at the back for whatever reason. When the scandal hits social media, President Buhari directed Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo to investigate the matter and advise him on the next steps to take, the VP knew the leakage to media came directly from Amosun and up till this moment, he is yet to get back to President Buhari until Adeosun resigned yesterday evening.That’s the end of the saga”.
Another exclusive source also hinted that Governor Ibikunle Amosun recently approached Presidency over the recent Paris funds( N16.7 Billion)allocated to Osun state and questioned why Ogun state was not involved in the sharing of the Paris funds.
President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly told him to contact the Finance Minister, his nominee to find out details but Amosun told Mr.President that he has not been speaking with Adeosun for close to 3 months now.
“Let me tell you for free,Governor Ibikunle Amosun spent nothing less than $3,000 per editorial in major Nigerian newspapers to write on Adeosun’s NYSC certificate scandal.Nigerians have now seen the final outcome as Adeosun resigned from Buhari’s government and quickly travelled to England, her place of birth to start a new life. If Kemi had obtained the NYSC Exemption through official methods, she would have replied the Premium Times within 24 hours of the leakage that her certificate is 100 % genuine. She was silent for over 3 months until her latest resignation.She was totally confused as any human being. President Buhari advised Kemi to resign because Amosun who nominated her as Finance Minister is no longer in good terms with her, and also another ‘soft-landing’ to bow out honourably over this NYSC certificate scandal.”
According to the Wikipedia entry, Kemi Adeosun commenced her career as an accounting assistant at British Telecom, London, from 1989 till 1990, after which she moved to Goodman Jones, London, working as a Senior audit officer from 1990 till 1993. She became Manager of Internal Audit at London Underground, London and Prism Consulting from 1994 till 2000 before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, London as Senior Manager from 2000 till 2002. In 2002, Kemi became financial controller at Chapel Hill Denham Management and subsequently, Managing Director in 2010. After working with Quo Vadis Partnership as Managing Director from 2010 to 2011, she was appointed Ogun State’s Commissioner of Finance 2011. Kemi maintained this role from 2011 to 2015.
In November 2015, Miss Adeosun Kemi was appointed Nigeria’s Minister of Finance by President Muhammadu Buhari. During the annual general meeting of Afreximbank in Abuja to commemorate it’s 25th anniversary, Adeosun was elected chairman of the board of the bank. Kemi is succeeding the outgoing chairman Ndagijimana Uzziel, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Rwanda.
It can also be recalled that Governor Ibikunle Amosun was also briefly involved in allegation of certificate scandal during his first term as Ogun state governor where he allegedly claimed of obtaining Msc Finance from one unknown London school. The matter later died a natural death because Amosun quickly removed it from his CV.
