More facts have emerged about the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) status of the Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa.
Ms Musawa has been in the eye of the storm for weeks for failing to provide, during her confirmation hearing in the Nigerian Senate, evidence that she participated in the national mandatory youth service program after graduating from university.
This controversy deepened in recent days after the disclosure by NYSC that the minister is currently doing her national youth service, prompting her critics to call on her to step down.
But Newslodge can authoritatively report today that Ms. Musawa’s national service saga has a longer history and is much more complicated than is publicly known.
A review of a set of documents and interviews with people familiar with the matter revealed that Musawa and NYSC authorities had fought for at least three years over his actual NYSC status and a withheld certificate.
President Bola Tinubu and Hannatu Musawa
While the attorney claimed that he completed his national service in 2003 and that the withheld certificate should be issued to him, the NYSC claimed that he absconded mid-service. After years of back and forth failed to produce results, Ms. Musawa chose to remobilize to serve whatever time period NYSC deems outstanding for her. “We advised him to sue NYSC over the matter,” an associate of the minister told Newslodge. “But she refused, saying that she preferred a peaceful resolution of the matter.”
There is a NYSC discharge certificate issued to Ms. Musawa in 2003 and she is in Corps custody, according to documents seen by this newspaper. However, authorities are withholding the document after accusing her of absconding at one point during her year of service. For her part, Musawa said that the NYSC was not diligent and careful enough in pursuing her background and that she was not granted a fair hearing to prove that she did not abscond.
Ms. Musawa, hell and the search for a certificate
In 2020, former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated her for appointment as a National Commissioner representing the geopolitical area of northwestern Nigeria on the board of directors of the National Pensions Commission (PENCOM).
While preparing for her Senate review, Ms. Musawa wrote to the NYSC through her Kaduna State Coordinator requesting the replacement of her NYSC certificate.
According to her, the NYSC certificate was part of the documents that were burned in a Hell that razed his Asokoro residence in 2019..
“Last year, on Saturday, September 14, 2019, at approximately 5:52 pm, a fire broke out at my house at 15 Justice Lawal Uwais Street, Asokoro, Abuja. Many of my documents were lost in the fire, including my NYSC certificate,” he wrote in the letter dated September 30, 2020. “Therefore, I am writing to request the replacement of my NYSC certificate that was lost in the fire incident. fire. .”
The Kaduna State NYSC searched for Ms. Musawa’s records in its certificate issuance records, but found no matching information. Therefore, the State Coordinator, Isa Wana, forwarded Ms. Musawa’s application to the Corps Certification Department at NYSC headquarters in Abuja.
Hannatu Musa Musawa
“Her details could not be found in any of our 2001, 2002 and 2003 certificate issuance records. She was also unable to recall her state code number or the location of her primary assignment to facilitate further investigation,” Wana wrote in a letter. letter dated January 7. October 2020 to the NYSC certification department.
Days after Mr. Wana’s letter to NYSC headquarters, the body’s certification department found Ms. Musawa’s NYSC certificate, indicating that she never picked up the certificate and did not burn it at home.
However, because she had claimed in her letters to the NYSC and obtained a police report that the certificate was part of the property destroyed in the fire that destroyed her home, the NYSC refused to issue her the certificate.
The NYSC also accused her of absconding during her service year, as they were unable to find her details at the Kaduna state office, where she claimed to have completed her service. Her failure to obtain the NYSC certificate at that time ultimately led to her disqualification for appointment to PENCOM in November 2020.
Now aware that her certificate is in the custody of the Corps, Ms. Musawa continued to press for her release. In letters to the NYSC, she insisted that she duly completed the NYSC in Kaduna, where she was reassigned after serving five months in Ebonyi State.
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Documents seen by Newslodge showed that the minister was called up for national service in September 2002 and posted to the Ministry of Justice, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. Five months into the year of service, in February 2003, he was transferred to Kaduna State.
The NYSC insisted that there is no record that the then-corpsman continued her service after her redeployment to Kaduna. But Musawa said the body needed only a more careful search of her records at Ebonyi and Kaduna to determine the authenticity of her claims that she completed her service. She also asked to be given the opportunity to provide documents, including copies of letters from Manema Universal Limited in Kaduna, her NYSC employer during the latter part of her service year.
In December 2020, Ms. Musawa wrote to the NYSC board of directors, asking them to intervene by giving her a fair hearing on the matter. But in a March 17, 2021 response, the Board said her case had been declared closed and no further search of her documents was necessary. “The board prays that you accept their decision in good faith and that this be the end of this matter as far as the NYSC is concerned,” the letter, signed by board secretary Abdullahi Jikamshi, said.
Hannatu Musawa writes about King Carlos III.
Despite this verdict from the NYSC Board, Ms. Musawa did not let up on her pressure to obtain her certificate. In August 2022, Musawa wrote a 10-page letter to the then Minister for Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, detailing her ordeal. She asked for a review of the NYSC’s decision on her service status and the withholding of her certificate. “My reputation, my future, my career and my integrity could all be eroded if this matter is not handled properly,” she wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by this newspaper.
He claimed that he was never granted a fair hearing during the appeal period to obtain his NYSC certificate. According to her, the NYSC repeatedly made the mistake of looking up the wrong call number. Instead of NYSC/LAW/2001/405353, she said the NYSC continued to look for NYSC/LAW/2001/405351. The error in the search for the caller number was made from the NYSC office in Kaduna state, where she began the search, she said.
Musawa also maintained that he completed his NYSC service at Manema Universal Limited in Kaduna but did not collect his certificate at that time due to illness. “I completed the service in September 2003 and got my clearance, but I didn’t attend the passing out ceremony at NYSC due to illness,” he said.
He added that he requested the replacement of the certificate because he believed that he had collected it. “At the time I submitted the certificate replacement application to NYSC, I had the genuine and honest belief that I had picked up my certificate at the end of the service year, as it was 17 years ago,” he added.
Ms. Musawa also told then-Minister Dare that “DG NYSC has been acting on the information it has received without giving me an opportunity to be heard and has therefore reached conclusions that are still detrimental to my future.” , even and more especially beyond the present mission. .
“By all indications, it appears that DG NYSC has become sentimental and is no longer impartial on this matter. It is clear that I have not received a fair hearing and consideration from you in the slightest. Therefore, I pray that all actions taken by DG NYSC in this matter are struck down as prejudicial and the entire matter dispassionately reconsidered by another objective body or person.
An unwavering plea from Musawa and a remobilization
However, his appeal to Minister Dare to reconsider his case did not produce the result he desired. Nonetheless, she continued to press for her certificate of service, her associates said. When it became clear that she was not making any progress, she requested that she be allowed to re-enroll for whatever number of months NYSC deemed outstanding in her year of service.
NYSC Director of Press and Public Relations, Eddy Megwa, said TRUST DAILY Ms. Musawa was remobilized and had been participating in the national youth service scheme for the past eight months in Abuja.
Her associates say that having completed an additional eight months of national service in Abuja, on top of the five she did in Ebonyi, the embattled minister can be said to have completed her one-year service. “She even stayed longer than she was on duty,” said an associate, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
PREMIUM has not been able to independently verify that claim. Musawa and Megwa, the NYSC spokesperson, did not return or return calls to their known phone numbers seeking comment for this story.
What the NYSC Law Says
Established by Decree number 24 of May 2, 1973, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was created to “foster and properly develop common bonds among the youth of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity”.
However, the decree, which obliges all Nigerians graduating from a university inside or outside Nigeria to take the program for a period of 12 months, has been reviewed by the legislature since the return to democracy.
Under section 2(2) of the NYSC Act (2004), the only Nigerians excluded from compulsory participation in the scheme are those who reached the age of 30 before their graduation date, those who served in the Nigerian armed forces or the Police officers for more than nine months, staff from Nigerian security organizations, and individuals decorated with national honours.
Born on November 1, 1974, Ms. Musawa graduated from Buckingham University and Nigerian Law School before the age of 30 and is therefore eligible for national service.
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Let hear it in the comment below if you do have an opinion on this; EXCLUSIVE: Untold Story of Minister Hannatu Musawa’s NYSC Saga