Tinubu’s minister: My appointment as a corps member didn’t violate any law
Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, has insisted that she did not do anything unlawful by accepting a ministerial appointment while undergoing the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). There was a huge controversy after the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) raised alarm that Musawa was serving somewhere in Abuja. Back then, Emeka […]
Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, has insisted that she did not do anything unlawful by accepting a ministerial appointment while undergoing the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
There was a huge controversy after the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) raised alarm that Musawa was serving somewhere in Abuja.
Back then, Emeka Megwa, Director, Press and Public Relations of the NYSC, occupying the ministerial position during her service year amounted to a breach of the NYSC Act.
In a chat with Daily Trust, Megwa had explained that it was against the NYSC Act for any corps member to pick up any government appointment until the one-year service was over.
He said Mrs Musawa was originally mobilised in 2001 for the youth service to Ebonyi State where she had her orientation programme but later relocated to Kaduna State to continue the programme.
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He said it was when she got to Kaduna that she absconded and didn’t complete the programme.
But when she featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Musawa argued that she did not break the law.
She claimed to have undergone two years of national youth service in her lifetime.
“There have been so many different accounts of that particular situation. The fact that I’m seated here should tell you that I did not do anything wrong,” she said.
“I have not come out to set the records straight as to what really happened. The social media has just run rife with different accounts. The matter has been adjudicated and one day, I will come out with my own account.
“I did not break the law. I did NYSC and finished. I can assure you that nothing was done to break the law or regulation. Everything that I did was in accordance with the law,” she said.
Asked whether she was worried that the President would drop her from his cabinet because of the “controversies” around her person, the minister said, “I don’t think there is a controversy about my person, and I don’t think there is a controversy about my office. What I can tell you is that I campaigned for the President and I trust his judgement.
“What I know of the President is that he has a vision and a mission to make Nigeria better than he met it. He is a very courageous man. As a leader, you have to take courageous decisions.
“For him to give Nigerians his deliverables, he needs a team of lieutenants to do that. I think it is healthy in any democracy and any administration for him to look at his cabinet and his lieutenants to see who are working in tandem with him to give those deliverables and if anybody isn’t, I think we have to trust his judgement.
“So, I am not worried because I know that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has the best interest of the nation and whatever he would make in terms of the restructuring or otherwise of his cabinet is going to be in the best interest of delivering his mission and vision for Nigerians.”