The Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, on Sunday once again refused to explain the mystery surrounding her National Youth Service Corp certificate scandal, saying she won’t be distracted by such discussion.
The immediate past Adviser to the President on Culture and Entertainment disclosed this when she was featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
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The minister had been in the eye of the storm for failing to provide the Nigerian Senate with evidence that she participated in the mandatory NYSC scheme when she appeared for her screening after President Bola Tinubu sent her name for confirmation.
Her confirmation in 2023 subsequently led to a legal firework instituted by some aggrieved Nigerians who described her appointment without completing the mandatory service as an aberration.
But the case was thrown out in April 2024 when the presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, held that the plaintiffs lacked locus standi (legal right) to institute the suit.
Reacting to the drama after one year in office, the lawyer insisted that she was not ready to deliberate the issue with anybody until an undisclosed period when she would be willing to come clean on what transpired.
She said, “I don’t know what you have heard. There have been so many different accounts of that particular situation. The fact that I am sitting here means that I didn’t do anything wrong. But I have not come out to set the record straight as to what happened. The social media has just run rife with different accounts.
“The matter had been adjudicated and one day, I will come out with my account. I have probably done more NYSC than you (presenter). I have done at least two NYSCs in my life.”
When quizzed further on why she was shying away from the question despite knowing that she owed Nigerians an explanation for the exalted office she holds, the minister kicked.
“I think what I owe Nigerians is to say that I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t break the law. The NYSC I did and finished. That is the much I can tell you. Everything I did was by the law.
“That was why I also said that one day I would come out with my account of what happened to set the record straight. As of now, I think it is important for me to focus on giving Nigerians the deliverables,” she said.
Musawa also declined to affirm whether she went back to complete the youth service in office.
