Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, has been under pressure since Premium Times reported her alleged forgery of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
In the report, the newspaper said the minister skipped the one-year mandatory scheme and later forged the certificate.
The report said the upper legislative chamber detected this when President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded her name for ministerial screening but rather than disqualify her, the lawmakers decided to use it as a tool for blackmail.
Although Adeosun has been silent since the report was filed on Saturday, several Nigerians have been mounting pressure on her.
Joe Abah, fomer director-general of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, said if the allegations are true she should not only be fired but prosecuted.
“If it is true that the minister of finance did not do the NYSC and presented a forged certificate, then her position is irredeemably untenable and she must be fired and prosecuted. That a swift rebuttal or admission has still not been issued is difficult to understand,” Abah tweeted.
Kayode Ogundamisi, social commentator Nigeria’s politics, said the finance of the country could not be entrusted into the hands of a “forger.”
“.@HMKemiAdeosun if PM reports are true, your best bet is to RESIGN NOW! For the sake of Nigerians who enrol in @nysc_ng some even dying in the process. Nigeria’s finance cant be entrusted in the hands of a forger, dont wait for #KemiWhereIsYourNYSCCertificate? to trend please,” Ogundamisi tweeted.
Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of aviation, said “it’s time for Kemi Adeosun to resign.”
“No wonder we are in a recession! It’s time for Kemi Adeosun to resign,” the former minister tweeted.
On her part, Aisha Yesufu, a member of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, said the Buhari administration had fallen so low that it has given the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) some moral high ground.
“President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has fallen so low that it has given PDP that should be hiding it’s head in shame the opportunity to be on some moral high ground! PMB has redefined the word integrity,” she tweeted.
Tweeting, Japheth Omojuwa, a socio-economic and political commentator and social media expert, said Adeosun’s silence is “pretty loud for such weighty allegations.”
“Kemi Adeosun’s silence is pretty loud for such weighty allegations. The allegations against her are weighty enough but the House of Cards like costs associated with it as it is linked with legislative blackmailing makes it an extremely expensive issue,” he tweeted.
“Something has to give.”
In its reaction, the PDP advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to provide cover for the minister.
“PDP has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack, arrest and arraign his minister of finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun for alleged criminal forgery of her NYSC certificate,” the party said in a statement.
“The PDP challenges President Buhari to prove himself a man of integrity by allowing an open system-wide and independent inquest into all alleged corrupt practices in his presidency.”