The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara
State in the forthcoming general elections, Razak Atunwa, did not
participate in Nigeria’s compulsory national youth service scheme.
Instead, he
procured a forged discharge certificate of the National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC) which he submitted to the PDP to prove his eligibility for
public office.
The fresh revelation about Mr Atunwa came about
four months after PREMIUM TIMES exposed then finance minister, Kemi
Adeosun, for engaging in similar conduct, and just a little over a month
since the embattled official was forced to resign as a result of the
scandal.
The Kwara politician’s conduct also came to light
exactly a month after this medium reported that the Minister of
Communications, Adebayo Shittu, also dodged the compulsory service,
making him ineligible for public office and employment in Nigeria.
Although
the minister was later disqualified by his party, the All Progressives
Congress (APC) from running for governorship of his native Oyo State,
President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to remove him from office.
The
NYSC law requires every Nigerian who attended university or polytechnic
to participate in the national youth scheme for one year after
graduation, provided the person finished before age 30. Failure to serve
would prohibit such individual from gainful employment in Nigeria, and
making false claims about serving could attract up to 14 years in jail.
Also,
anyone who graduated before 30 but deliberately declined to serve has
committed a crime that could attract 12-month imprisonment, even if the
person did not forge NYSC documents.
Only a person who obtained a
degree after 30 or served in the military or won national honours medal
would qualify for exemption certificate under the NYSC law.
Mr Atunwa, born on October 17, 1969, said he studied law at the University of East London, graduating in 1992 at age 23.
Having
earned a bachelor’s degree at 23, Mr Atunwa, going by Section 2 of the
NYSC Act, should have participated in the year-long national service.
THE AUDACIOUS FORGERY
But
rather than present himself for national service, Mr. Atunwa stayed
back in the United Kingdom, returning only in 2005 to join the cabinet
of then Governor Bukola Saraki in Kwara State at the age of 36.
Between
2005 and 2010 when he stepped down to run for office, the politician
was commissioner at four different ministries, including Land and
Housing, Works and Transport, Information and Home Affairs and Finance.
It
was not immediately clear whether or not Mr Atunwa presented any NYSC
document to authorities since 2005 when he was first appointed
commissioner, 2011 when he became speaker and 2015 when he became member
of the House of Representatives.
But to secure the PDP
governorship ticket on October 1, he submitted a counterfeit NYSC
discharge certificate and accompanied it with an affidavit, indicating
he lied on oath, an offence that attracts up to 14 years in jail.
Mr
Atunwa — who claimed he qualified for law practice in the United
Kingdom after obtaining undergraduate and master’s degrees at separate
universities in London — indicated in the nomination document he
submitted at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja that he partook in
the youth service scheme between 1995 and 1996.
The lawmaker, who
is chair of the House Committee on Justice, then accompanied it with a
notarised affidavit sworn at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin on
September 10. The document was attached to his PDP expression of
interest form.
He signed the document despite a clause indicating
he remained automatically disqualified as candidate if any statement or
information he provided is found to be false, inaccurate, or mislead
the party or its agents from making proper assessment of his competence
to contest the governorship election under the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP).
It remains to be seen if the PDP will
enforce its own rule and disqualify him as a result of this revelation.
Governorship elections are scheduled to hold February 2019.
One could see at first glance that Mr. Atunwa’s so-called discharge certificate is fake.
For
one, Mr Atunwa’s ‘certificate’ purportedly obtained in 1996 carried the
signature of Walter Oki (brigadier general at the time). But Mr Oki was
only made NYSC director-general in 2002. In 1996, Soyemi Sofoluwe
(brigadier general) was director-general of the corps and signed all
discharge and exemption certificates during the period. He was succeeded
by S.M. Dule (brigadier general), who served as director-general
between 1996 and 2000.
To further crosscheck the authenticity of
Mr Atunwa’s ‘certificate’, PREMIUM TIMES compared his with original ones
that bore the basics of the document, especially those from foreign
university graduates.
At least three ministers who returned to
Nigeria to serve after finishing from schools in the UK and the United
States had similar call-up mark in their certificates, which usually
carries the acronym of the institution, the state where the participant
served, where the person was called up, the year of service and the
serial number for the certificate.
For instance, Ibe Kachikwu,
the minister of state for petroleum, has his NYSC certificate marked as
NYSC/OY/FORN/82/7101. Mr Kachikwu was deployed for service in Oyo State
(OY) on August 16, 1982, passing out a year later on August 15, 1983. He
came back to Nigeria to serve after completing his doctorate in law at
Harvard University (FORN) in December 1981.
Aisha Abubakar, the
minister of state trade and industry, returned to Nigeria after
concluding her masters in development studies at the University of
Leeds. Her certificate is marked NYSC/LA/FRN/91/18170, indicating that
she served in Lagos, after graduating from a foreign university.
Khadija
Bukar Ibrahim, the minister of state foreign affairs, also schooled
abroad. She attended Roehampton Institute for Higher Education,
affiliated with the University of Surrey and finished in 1989. She
enlisted in the NYSC on October 2, 1990 and passed out on October 1,
1991. Her certificate is marked NYSC/LA/FRN/90/28750, indicating that
she served in Lagos (LA) after graduating from a foreign university
(FRN) in 1990.
However, Mr. Atunwa’s certificate, rather than
bear FRN or FORN (code for foreign graduates) has KWP (a code reserved
for graduates of Kwara State Polytechnic) as identification mark. But
the politician did not graduate from Kwara Polytechnic. He claimed he
attended the University of East London for the first degree and the
University of London for his master’s.
“This is the most
audacious forgery since PREMIUM TIMES began investigation into NYSC
claims of senior government officials and politicians generally,”
Liborous Oshoma, a Lagos-based legal practitioner, told PREMIUM TIMES
Sunday afternoon.
Mr Oshoma said Mr Atunwa appeared to have broken Nigerian law twice.
“Based
on Section 13 (c) of the NYSC Act, even being in possession of a forged
NYSC certificate is already a crime,” Mr Oshoma said. “And then we now
have an affidavit that he swore to and walked himself into perjury,
another criminal offence.”
Mr Oshoma said Mr Atunwa’s case was more unfortunate for Nigeria.
“You
could say Kemi Adeosun did not know some people gave her fake document,
and Mr Shittu was being exuberant, but this particular case is very
troubling,” the lawyer said. “He knew of those recent cases and still
went on to do it.
“This is amongst the consequences of the
president’s failure to act on time or act at all on the already
uncovered cases. Since the former finance minister was able to escape
from the country without prosecution and the communications minister
remains in office despite being found not to be qualified for the job,
this man could easily dismiss any legal ramifications of his action,” he
added.
“Since it has now come to the fore that if you graduated
before 30, either from a Nigerian university or abroad, you know you do
not qualify for exemption and you must serve and if you forge your
document you would be exposed, I would have expected that all those who
schooled abroad would start investigating whether the NYSC document they
were given was genuine or not. There is no hiding place anymore.”
