Eddy Megwa, the NYSC’s director of press and public relations, claimed that Mrs. Hannatu Musawa, the minister of arts and culture who is presently serving a one-year youth service, is abusing the NYSC Act by holding the ministerial position.
Megwa, who spoke with our reporter on the phone, confirmed that the minister had been working in the FCT for the previous eight months.
He clarified that until the one-year service was complete, it was against the NYSC Act for any corps member to accept any government post.
He said that Mrs. Musawa had been transferred from Ebonyi State, where she had completed her orientation program, to Kaduna State to continue the program after being recruited for the youth service in 2001.
He claimed that when she arrived in Kaduna, she fled and abandoned the program.
Megwa stated that the plan would investigate the situation and take appropriate action.
Lawyers answer.
Abeny Mohammed (SAN) responded by claiming that the action was against the NYSC Act, which stated that no one may be legally engaged or make an application for employment without having completed the service and showing the certificate, unless they were exempt and in possession of a certificate of exemption.
The issue at hand is that this person has been made a minister while still working as a corper, said Mohammed. It demonstrates our policies’ inconsistency and contempt for the law.
Similar to this, Femi Falana (SAN) stated that it was illegal for someone to obtain a ministerial job while still enrolled in the NYSC.
Falana claimed in a statement titled “A Youth Corps Member is not Competent to be a Minister in Nigeria” that Section 2 of the NYSC Act mandated that anyone under 30 years old who had completed tertiary education both inside and outside of Nigeria be mobilized for the one-year mandatory national youth service, and that anyone over 30 was ineligible to serve.