We disqualified Communications Minister for skipping NYSC- APC

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has stated that the serving Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, was disqualified from contesting the Oyo State governorship primaries because he skipped the mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) programme.

Oshiomhole also said that Shittu’s counterpart in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Jummai Alhassan (aka Mama Taraba), was also disqualified as Governorship aspirant to fly the party’s flag in the 2019 general election for her disloyalty to the party.

Oshiomhole expressed worry that Shittu failed to attend the compulsory NYSC as a Nigerian graduate, which he attested to at the party’s screening committee.

Oshiomhole made this revelation during a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

He said: “Shitu 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.

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.

“As for the Minister of Women Affairs, she has issues that have to do with party loyalty. Our constitution is clear and it dictates that to contest elections or even hold office in the APC, you must be loyal to the party in every material concern.

“From all she had said in the past and even her comments and general attitude during the screening, the NWC reviewed everything taken together and we arrived at the conclusion that she does not possess the level of loyalty that the APC requires for her to contest elections on our platform.

“We made it clear when the defections happened that the APC may well benefit from these defections if it helps us to be more critical in terms of who we give platform to contest elections and that there are core values that binds the APC together and they are non-negotiable”, Oshiomhole added.