A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday ruled that the former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun, had no obligation to produce a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate to enable her to hold public office.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a judgment over the lingering certificate saga that led to the resignation of Adeosun as minister, ruled that the plaintiff was not qualified to have participated in the scheme when she graduated at 22 years old because she was then a British citizen.
“The plaintiff, being a United Kingdom citizen as at 1989 when she graduated from the University of East London, London, United Kingdom, at the age of 22 years, was ineligible to participate in the National Youth Service Corps Scheme, established by the National Youth Service Corps Act, CAP N84, LFN 2004,” the judge ruled.
He also granted a declaration that the plaintiff cannot be subjected to any penalty, forfeiture or put under any encumbrance in relation to her occupation or assumption of any of the following public offices, created by the Constitution.
The judgment was on a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/303/2021 filed by Adeosun, with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as the sole defendant.
The court was, however, silent on the allegation that she forged the certificate.
Adeosun through her counsel, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, had argued that as of 1989, when she graduated from the University of East London, United Kingdom the constitution in force in Nigeria, was the 1979 constitution.
“Although the said 1979 constitution placed a condition for persons with dual citizenship to renounce their other citizenship upon attaining the age of 21 for them to retain their Nigerian citizenship, the plaintiff upon attaining the age of 21 on 9th March 1988, did not renounce her United Kingdom citizenship, and she held only to her United Kingdom citizenship until her graduation from the University of London at the age of 22, in 1989, and thereafter.
“In essence, by the effect of the said 1979 Constitution, the plaintiff had, as at the date of her graduation from the University, forfeited her Nigerian citizenship, which did not revert to her until the promulgation of the 1999 Constitution, when she was already 32 years old.
“The truism, therefore, was that not being a Nigerian at the time of graduation, she was not eligible to participate in any scheme which was exclusively reserved for Nigerian citizens, including participation in the National Youth Service Corps scheme,” her lawyer had averred.
