A few days ago, Mrs Kemi Adeosun resigned her  appointment as the Minister of Finance following  allegations by Premium Times that she forged her National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) certificate for exemption.

THE President, Muhammadu Buhari, accepted her resignation letter and immediately appointed Zainab Ahmed to act as the interim Minister of Finance.

IN her resignation letter, Adeosun said she was  born and  brought  up in the  United Kingdom and that when she relocated to Nigeria there was a debate as to whether the NYSC  law applied to her.

UPON enquiry, she was informed that due to  her residency history and having exceeded the age of 30 she was exempted from the requirement of serving her NYSC, but that she needed an exemption certificate.

BASED on the advice, she applied  for the certificate and was given one, but that she did not know it was a forged one, as the people who procured it went through the  back door.

THEREFORE,  she was resigning from office as a person totally committed to a culture of probity and accountability the administration of Buhari is bent on establishing in the country.

ACCORDING to the process of getting an NYSC certificate of  exemption, an individual seeking it must submit their documents for an evaluation.

AFTER  this, the person concerned is then registered  physically at the NYSC directorate in Abuja, where the classification of the person to be called up or exempted is determined.

CERTIFICATES of exemption are then produced for these exempted from service, and they are to be collected at the stipulated time communicated to the persons concerned.

IN Adeosun’s case, it would appear those who obtained the fake certificate for her did not pass through the process of acquiring it.

HAVING said this, The Hope commends Adeosun for   displaying honour,  strength of character and integrity in resigning from office over the issue.

IT is clear to all that she was misled by associates who procured the certificate for her by skipping a process that should  ordinarily not  cause problems for the ex-minister.

HER action is a  testimony  that she  against act of corruption impunity, irresponsibility and executive regality  that have characterized  the Nigerian state since independence  58 years ago.

HER pedigree as mentioned in her resignation letter speaks volume about her integrity, and we  advise her to go to the NYSC directorate and follow the appropriate steps to show she would not have  got  into the mess she is in if she had procured the certificate herself.

BUT much more than this, her situation  reveals loopholes in the NYSC law,  as those who drafted it did not envisage  a situation where individuals like her may want to return to the country to serve their  father land.

THIS aspect of the law should be amended for the sake of thousands of Nigerian children born and educated in other  lands and who want to come back to Nigeria.

ANOTHER  crucial  issue related to the Adeosun resignation is the tendency of Nigerians to circumvent the law and go through the back door to gain official documents.

THAT’s the reason many believe it is normal for driver’s license to be obtained by somebody who cannot start the engine  of a car or yellow fever  certificates acquired without undergoing the required  tests.

THE end result is that  innocent people like Adeosun find themselves in an easily  avoidable mess.

MRS Adeosun will be remembered for her  guts  in questioning  frivolous expenditures and her major interventions in the critical areas of the finance system of the Buhari administration.