The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has confirmed that the minister of art, culture, and creative economy, Hannatu Musawa, is a serving corps member.
“Yes she is a serving corp member,” NYSC spokesman Eddy Megwa told TheCable, a digital media outfit.
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) alleged that Musawa is undertaking the one-year mandatory youth service scheme while she is a cabinet member in the government of President Bola Tinubu.
Musawa was part of the 45 ministers sworn in as members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday by President Tinubu.
Earlier, HURIWA in a statement claimed that Musawa is a corp member of NYSC and that her place of primary assignment is a law firm in Abuja.
HURIWA urged the NYSC management to compel Musawa to choose between her national youth service or the ministerial appointment.
It wondered why the status of Musawa was not made known to the members of the public before the senate screened her for the position.
The rights group alleged that Musawa abandoned her NYSC years ago in Ebonyi state but later showed interest in completing it.
In September 2020, former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Musawa as a national commissioner representing the north-west geopolitical zone on the national pension commission board.
But the Senate in October of that same year turned down her nomination following a report from the committee on establishment and public service matters that Musawa failed to provide her NYSC certificate or exemption letter.