PREMIUM TIMES
The NYSC certificate saga involving Minister Hannatu Musawa has a way more complex background than is currently known to the public
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 for weeks been in the eye of the storm for failing, during her confirmation hearing at the Nigerian senate, to provide evidence that she participated in the mandatory national youth service programme after her graduation from the university.
That controversy deepened in the past days following the disclosure by the NYSC that the minister is currently undergoing her national youth service, sparking calls by her critics that she should vacate office.
But PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report today that Ms Musawa’s national service saga has a longer history and is far more complicated than is publicly known.
A review of a cache of documents and interviews with people familiar with the matter revealed that Ms Musawa and NYSC authorities had battled for at least three years over her real NYSC status and a withheld certificate.
While the lawyer claimed she completed her national service in 2003 and should be issued the withheld certificate, the NYSC claimed she absconded midway into her service. After the years-long back and forth failed to produce results, Ms Musawa then opted to be remobilised to serve out whatever period of time the NYSC believes is outstanding for her. “We advised her to sue the NYSC over the matter,” an associate of the minister told PREMIUM TIMES. “But she refused, saying she preferred a peaceful resolution of the matter.”
An NYSC discharge certificate issued in Ms Musawa’s name in 2003 exists and is in the custody of the Corps, according to documents seen by this newspaper. However, authorities are withholding the document after accusing her of absconding at a point during her service year. On her part, Ms Musawa said the NYSC was not diligent and careful enough in its search for her record and that she was not accorded a fair hearing to prove that she did not abscond.
Ms Musawa, an inferno and the search for a certificate
In 2020, former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated her for appointment as the national commissioner representing Nigeria’s northwest geopolitical zone on the board of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM).
In preparing for her screening by the Senate, Ms Musawa wrote the NYSC through its Kaduna State coordinator requesting the replacement of her NYSC certificate.
According to her, the NYSC certificate was part of the documents that got burnt in an inferno that razed her Asokoro residence in 2019.
