SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kemi Adeosun Isn't a Victim, but She'sNot Alone

Farooq Kperogi lied with the intention to defame Mrs Kemi Adeosun when he asserted that 'she evaded the mandatory national youth service for every Nigerian who graduated from University before the (age) of 30 and forged an exemption certificate she wasn't entitled to have in the first place… " Mrs. Kemi Adeosun acquired Nigerian citizenship at the age of 30 and returned to Nigeria in 2002 at the age of 35. She applied immediately to the NYSC for exemption to serve and that has been confirmed by the NYSC. Simple logic dictates that she would not have applied to the NYSC for exemption to serve if she had wanted to evade serving. Did Mrs. Kemi Adeosun personally forge an NYSC exemption certificate as averred by Farooq Kperogi? So far, there is no evidence to back up that assertion. The evidence before the public is that she was in possession of a forged NYSC exemption certificate. Farooq Kperogi is not qualified to determine if Mrs. Kemi Adeosun was entitled to exemption from serving in NYSC but as usual, he has usurped the power of NYSC to determine the status of her application of exemption filed in 2002.

As if Farooq Kperogi suddenly woke up from a trance to recognize that Mrs. Kemi Adeosun did not forge an NYSC certificate he wrote, "...… she deserves sympathy, not condemnation, because she was guileless victim of corrupt 'trusted associates." Is trusted associates alone that are corrupt and not the NYSC officials who received her application of exemption already in 2002 but failed to communicate a decision to her until now, and through the media? Only crooks would not be outraged by the way the NYSC handled the application of Mrs. Kemi Adeosun for exemption to serve in the NYSC programme.

Again, Farooq Kperogi complained bitterly on the jailing of 'Lebi Ayodele James who forged an ICAN certificate to move up the civil service ladder while leaving untouched Kemi Adeosun who also forged an NYSC exemption certificate without which she would never be a minister.' Farooq Kperogi is a typical Nigerian policeman who will arrest a driver in a go-slow que for over-speeding. NYSC certificate is not a professional certificate as Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). NYSC is not needed to perform the functions of Finance Minister but in Lebi Ayodele James' case, he needed an ICAN certificate to perform as a Senior Auditor. Of course, when an aboki professor, not of economics, science or technology, but of English language, counsels that NYSC is equal to ICAN, it is just like a lottery winner giving counsel on how to build a complex financial empire. Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has accepted responsibility for tendering an NYSC certificate of exemption which she believed to be genuine. She has not stolen a penny out of the national or state treasury and her fake NYSC exemption certificate has not harmed or killed a single Nigerian. Honest Nigerians should ignore the minor offence of Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and concentrate on immediate and accelerated trials of those who have looted Nigeria and whose cases of corruption have been adjourned indefinitely after being granted bails by the corrupt judiciary in Nigeria. The horrible consequences of looters of our collective patrimony, who have actually served in the NYSC programme, are visible all over Nigeria and it is to those looters that Nigerians should direct their angers.

S. Kadiri  

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Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Skickat: den 22 september 2018 17:14
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kemi Adeosun Isn't a Victim, but She'sNot Alone

 

This article has not supported the claim that MOST people in power in Nigeria are guilty of certificate forgery by any evidence.

It also has not supported the claim that Adeosun is providing money to the legislature because she was blackmailed by lawmakers to do so.

OAA.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>

Date: 22/09/2018 11:17 (GMT+00:00)

To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kemi Adeosun Isn't a Victim, but She'sNot  Alone

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Saturday, September 22, 2018

Kemi Adeosun Isn't a Victim, but She's Not Alone

By Farooq A. Kperogi, PhD

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

There are three false but popular narratives about former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun's NYSC certificate forgery that need to be exploded before we move on to the next scandal in the Buhari administration's never-ending cascade of humiliating scandals. The first is that by resigning her appointment in the wake of revelations that she evaded the mandatory national youth service for every Nigerian who graduated from university before the of 30 and forged an exemption certificate she wasn't entitled to have in the first place, she showed honor and integrity.

The second is that she deserves sympathy, not condemnation, because she was the guileless victim of corrupt "trusted associates." The third is that she was the first minister to resign her appointment "in principle"—or the first high-profile public official to be caught in the web of forgery.

Let's start with the first. Kemi Adeosun didn't resign her position as minister because she had any honor; she resigned because of sustained pressure from critical sections of the commentariat in both traditional and social media platforms—and because Buhari was gearing up to opportunistically fire her in the service of his reelection politics.

She and Buhari had hoped that we would all get tired of their intentionally contemptuous silence and give up. That didn't happen. Instead, the quieter they kept, the more vociferous cries for her ouster became. About 70 days later, she yielded to pressure and buckled under. That's not honor. She would have been worthy of being credited with honor only if she admitted to her forgery and resigned within a week after news of the forgery became public knowledge.

Most importantly, though, let's not forget that forgery is a criminal offense in our laws for which everyday people go to jail every time in Nigeria. In my July 21, 2018 column titled "Between Adeosun's Forged NYSC Certificate and Ayodele James' Fake ICAN Certificate," I pointed to the blatant judicial double standard in jailing a lowly civil servant by the name of Lebi Ayodele James who forged an ICAN certificate to move up the civil service ladder while leaving untouched Kemi Adeosun who also forged an NYSC exemption certificate without which she would never be a minister.

I said, "But let this be known: No nation that punishes its poor and protects its powerful for the same offense can endure… For every second that James remains in jail while Adeosun, Edozien, and Obono-Obla not only walk free but live off the fat of the land even when they committed the same offense as he, the very foundation of Nigeria chips off. A nation whose foundation comes off piecemeal as a result of blatant, in-your-face judicial double standard will sooner or later give way."

Praising Kemi Adeosun for resigning her position as minister is akin to praising a thief who reluctantly and grudgingly confessed to being a thief only AFTER she was caught stealing and publicly ridiculed for days on end. Kemi Adeosun should return all the money she earned from Nigeria from the time she was commissioner in Ogun State up until September 14 when she resigned her position as minister. (That was what Ayodele James was compelled to do by the court). After that, she should be prosecuted and jailed like Ayodele James. That would be justice. But she has bolted out to London and will probably escape justice.

Her self-pitying resignation letter that portrays her as a helpless, unresisting prey of dodgy "trusted associates" doesn't square with the facts. In the Premium Times report that blew the lid off her scam, we learn that "Some federal lawmakers revealed… that the [forgery] was detected by the Senate during the minister's confirmation hearing. But rather than probe the issue, they turned it into a tool against Mrs Adeosun. The report linked the certificate scandal to the minister's excessive, even illegal, funding of the lawmakers, including recently funnelling a N10billion largesse to that arm of government."

This clearly shows that Adeosun, contrary to the claims she made in her resignation letter, always knew that she had a forged NYSC exemption certificate. The fact of her giving in to the blackmail of the Senate was all the evidence one needs to know that she was always aware that she had a fake document—at least for the last three years that she was minister. So she not only forged, she also lied. That's not my idea of someone who has honor or character.

But she's not alone. There is an epidemic of fakery in high places in Nigeria. Who remembers Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, former director-general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange?  I was the first person to bring it to mainstream media attention that her claims to have earned a Ph.D. in business from the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1983 and to have worked at the New York Stock Exchange on the basis of which she became the DG of the NSE were fake.

These discoveries were made by the US the Securities and Exchange Commission, which investigated her. "On January 18, 2011, I caused a search to be conducted of our student records (including graduation records) at The Graduate Center, at the request of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, to determine if Ms. Ndi Okereke–Onyiuke was ever enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Business and if she received a Ph.D. in Business at The Graduate Center," Vincent De Luca, Director of Student Services and Senior Registrar of CUNY's Graduate School, wrote in a sworn affidavit in New York.

"A thorough search of our electronic and paper files for the names, Ndi Leche Okereke, Ndi Okereke, Ndi Okereke – Onyiuke and Ndi Lechi Okereke – Onyiuke was conducted. No record was found that Ms. Ndi Okereke – Onyiuke ever enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Business or received a Ph.D. in Business at The Graduate Center."

 But as I pointed out in my June 25, 2011 column titled "Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke's Fake Doctorate and Professorship," "Strangely, however, no Nigerian newspaper has touched the story with a ten-foot pole."

Even the authenticity of President Buhari's school certificate is the subject of controversy. Although many classmates of the president (who detest him) have told me in confidence that he did take his school certificate exams, I can't wrap my head around why he has chosen to hire more than a dozen Senior Advocates of Nigeria over this. Isn't it infinitely cheaper, less burdensome, and more fitting to just produce the certificate than to hire expensive lawyers to defend your right to not produce it?

This is particularly curious because the London GCE O-level certificate Buhari said he has lost isn't an irreplaceable document. All he has to do is write to the body that conducted the exam and he will get a replacement within days. Why is he reluctant to do that if he indeed took the exam? Something doesn't add up.

In a way, people who are incensed that Adesoun was hounded out of office for an offense most people in power in Nigeria are guilty of have a point.

Related Article:

Kemi Adeosun's NYSC Certificate is as Fake as Buhari's Integrity

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Journalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & Media

Social Science Building 

Room 5092 MD 2207

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Twitter: @farooqkperog

Author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

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