The Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu was among cabinet members who attended the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari started at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
A fortnight ago, Shittu and the immediate past Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, were disqualified from participating in the Oyo and Taraba states governorship primary elections, respectively, under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While Shittu was disqualified for not taking part in the compulsory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, Alhassan was disqualified over issues of loyalty to APC.
Shittu also failed to present any NYSC exemption certificate to the APC screening committee.
While disqualifying him, the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, had stated: “He (Shittu) admitted that he did not do the mandatory NYSC as provided for under the law and in his own judgment, his being a member of the House of Assembly in the state and now as a Minister of the Federal Republic, that these were enough sacrifices. But for us as a party we know that NYSC is a mandatory scheme.
“It is not something you may elect to do or abstain from doing and my understanding of the NYSC Act is that no employer of labour is permitted to employ anyone who graduated under 30 years and who did not obtain an exemption for reasons as provided for in the NYSC Act.
“So, for us, not participating in the NYSC raises very serious moral issue as well as legal issue.
“After interviewing him, we were convinced that….for our party, there are clear lessons we need to learn from our recent past when people…anyway, we were convinced that if he did not do NYSC, that for us, was enough to disqualify him and we had to find the courage to do so.
While Alhassan had immediately resigned from the cabinet, Shittu arrived for the first FEC meeting after his disqualification around 10.56a.m.
He exchanged pleasantries with his colleagues before taking his seat.
President Buhari called for rendition of the opening National anthem at the FEC meeting around 11.08a.m
Opening Muslims prayer was said by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed , while the Christian prayer was offered by the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu
Recall that the immediate past Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, had resigned from the cabinet due to fake NYSC exemption certificate presented to get the job.
Her ignorance of the status of the certificate she had presented could not save her from losing her seat in the cabinet. – The Nation.
