Buhari meets Kemi Adeosun, Bakare

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met behind closed doors with the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun and Senior Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare.

The duo, at 2:30 pm, walked past State House Correspondents on the alleyway shortly after the Jumma’at prayer session by Muslim faithful at the Presidential Villa as they proceeded straight to the President’s office engrossed in a discussion.

The agenda for the meeting is not officially established but sources said the visit was not unconnected with the controversy dogging the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate allegedly bandied around by the embattled Minister of Finance.

Meanwhile, Bakare left the villa at 4 pm leaving Adeosun behind. The minister was still with President Buhari at the time of filing this story.

Adeosun was accused of forging her NYSC her exemption certificate by Premium Times. The certificate is issued to Nigerians who cannot participate in the mandatory one-year national service for either being older than 30 at the time of graduating university education or having served a minimum of nine months in Nigerian force.

The minister, who is said to have graduated from the Polytechnic of East London (now University of East London) in 1989 at the age of 22, did not participate in the one-year national compulsory scheme.

She remained in the UK where she worked until 2002, at age 35, when she returned to the country.

The NYSC in reaction to the scandal said that it would investigate the origin of the allegedly forged exemption certificate purportedly being used by the minister.

Director of Press of NYSC Adeyemi Adenika in a statement confirmed that Mrs Adeosun who had skipped the scheme applied for an exemption certificate.

However, fielding questions on why the government was yet to speak on the scandal, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed last Wednesday said officials of the NYSC have already spoken on the matter hence there was nothing more to add to the issue.

Adeosun is yet to react to the allegation since the report of the fake exemption certificate being used by her broke out.