A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has flayed the Nigerian Senate confirming Hannatu Musawa, as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria when she was still currently doing the mandatory National Youth Service of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

HURIWA noted that the senate during the screening of the ministerial nominees, allowed Musawa to “bow and go” despite the controversy surrounding her National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) certificate, adding that she was the last ministerial nominee to show up for Senate’s screening during penultimate Tuesday’s plenary session.

The group alleged that the inaugurated Minister of Arts “is actually a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) somewhere in Wuse 2 Abuja in the year 2023.”

HURIWA described as despicable what was a routine with the Godswill Akpabio-led Senate, in which the then ministerial nominee, Musawa was asked to “take a bow and go” without being asked any questions about her academic qualifications, including the controversy surrounding her NYSC certificate which, as confirmed to HURIWA by a credible source in the NYSC, the Minister was actually a Youth Corper with the following posting details thus: FC/23A/505 and Posted to Onyilokwu onyilowa and company Suit number undisclosed purposely(paint house )old Banex plaza.

HURIWA wonders the kind of scrutiny being conducted by the Department of State Services so much so that it wasn't disclosed that the “Minister is actually a Youth corper.” The group alleged that years back, Musawa abandoned her NYSC in Ebonyi State but later showed interest to complete it in which she was mobilised this year and posted to a law firm in Abuja where she was serving before President Tinubu picked her as a ministerial nominee and was confirmed by Senate without proper screening and sworn in by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as minister of Arts.

HURIWA recalled that in 2020, the Ahmed Lawan-led 9th session of the Senate rejected Musawa’s nomination by former President Muhammadu Buhari as the Commissioner representing the North West at the National Pension Commission (PENCOM). Her failure to submit her National Youth Service (NYSC) certificate was cited as reason for her rejection. While it is compulsory for every Nigerian graduate to take part in the National Youth Service Corps for one year, graduates who are above 30 years are exempted from the national service.

Section 13 of the National Youths Service Corps Act stipulates that any Nigerian graduate below 30 who refuses to make himself/herself available for the compulsory one-year service has committed an offence “and liable on conviction to a fine of N4,OOO or to imprisonment for a term of two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”

HURIWA recalled too that a former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, was forced to resign from President Buhari’s government after an online newspaper reported that she forged the NYSC exemption certificate used in securing her appointment as minister.

HURIWA also condemned Musawa for her alleged display of illegality by spreading crispy N1, 000 notes to some local Hausa musicians at an event in which she was reportedly being celebrated over her appointment as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

HURIWA has also challenged the National Youth Service Corps to compel the Minister of Arts to choose between completing her engagement as a corper under the NYSC national service scheme and then bag her NYSC Certificate or to disengage from being a Youth corper and then focus on her new task as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The group wondered why the correct status of Musawa wasn’t made known to the members of the public before the Senate “sensationally failed to screen her as it should.”