Posted by Hannatu Musawa, President Bola Tinubu’s pick for Minister of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy, has been taken to court over her appointment.
Musawa’s selection as a minister while he was still serving in NYSC was criticized by certain campaigners.
Deji Adeyanju of Concerned Nigerians and Chief Patrick Eholor are two of the people that sparked the lawsuit.
Both of the activists claimed that Musawa’s promotion to minister was unconstitutional.
Musawa’s appointment as a federal minister during her mandated NYSC service has recently come under fire from several Nigerians.
But according to a statement released by Adeyanju, “we wish to inform members of the general public and Concerned Nigeria that the trio of veteran activists, in Concerned Nigerians and Chief Patrick Eholor, has instituted a lawsuit challenging the illegality of the appointment of Hannatu Musawa as a federal minister.”
Comrade Deji Adeyanju and Chief Dr. Patrick Osagie Eholor have filed action against Mrs. Hanatu Musawa because of her appointment as a federal minister while she is still an active corps member, despite the fact that her purported membership in the All Progressives Congress is obvious to anybody.
On behalf of Deji Adeyanju and Chief, Dr. Patrick Eholor, Abuja-based Human Rights lawyer Samuel Ihensekhien Jnr filed a lawsuit against the President of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation, and Hannatu Musawa in the Abuja division of the Federal High Court (suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS /1198/2023).
In response to the lawsuit, Barrister Samuel Ihensekhien, who represents Adeyanju and Eholor, stated:
A youth corps member, like Mrs. Hanatu Musawa in this case, is not competent to contest any election in Nigeria and or engaged in partisan politics, as was made abundantly clear by the Supreme Court’s authoritative statements in the case of Modibbo v Usman decided in 2019. Since the Constitution has prescribed the same qualifications and disqualifications for election into the House of Representatives and appointment into the post of Minister, a person just like Mrs Hanatu, now a federal minister of Nigeria, who has not completed the compulsory one-year youth service, is not competent to be appointed a Minister in Nigeria.
In this regard, the lawsuit requests five separate reliefs and further required consequential injunctions.
Eddy Megwa, the director of press and public relations for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), confirmed that the minister has been serving in the FCT for the past eight months.
A violation of the NYSC act, he said, would occur if a corps member accepted a government position before his or her year of service was complete.