“Kindly share ur perspective on Adeosun saga” In response to this, I said: “She has done the wise thing for resigning” My friend said further: “Some people r arguing that she is not answerable…that she wasn’t aware b4 that it was fake.” I said further : “She ought to know the implications of what she did and cannot shy away from that. Although one may say that for her having lived her life in UK and not in Nigeria may not be familiar with how things are being done and was not diligent enough to make findings. Again she presented the same document to her State House of Assembly and the National Assembly before her confirmation and appointment as Commissioner and Minister respectively and those institutions did not bother to make findings. It is only the press that exposed her. Did you read my article titled: SHOULD ELEVATION AGE TO BENCH BE PEGGED wherein I touched similar issue?” My very good friend later said : “I just read it” That was how we suspended the discussion. But why did I ask my friend whether he had read that article? The reason was to justify a point I had earlier made in that article written some weeks back where I stated that: “We seem to live in a society where people are encouraged to play with their ages like the way children play with their toys. Most often when there are job vacancies and the qualification age is pegged, some people in their desperation to get the job will run to the court deposing to affidavits faking their ages. Sometime I ask the rationale behind the pegging of age in some jobs. There are places even law firms where jobs are made available only to those people with the First Class or Second Class Upper Degrees. If you do not fall into these categories you become Personam Non Granta.” I don’t think there is much difference between going to court to falsely depose to an affidavit to state wrong age or visiting a place that is called “Oluwole” in Lagos to manufacture foreign certificate to claim that someone obtained his or her university degrees in the foreign land. All these fall within the realm of perjury and forgery. The country’s return to the democratic dispensation in 1999 started on the bad note. In the book LEGAL LUMINARIES, I stated the very obvious: “On the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999 and on the subsequent exposure of Salisu Buhari, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives as a holder of a forged foreign university certificate, Salisu ran to Chief Williams and engaged him to defend him in the law court and upon shedding tears before the court, Chief Williams submitted and pleaded that since his client had been remorseful, he urged the court to tamper justice with mercy.” Despite this many politicians have not learnt any lesson. Out of desperation many are still claiming to be what they are not because will operate a system where everything goes. When people submit documents to claim what they are not, those in charge are not already to make findings to confirm the genuineness of those documents. Imagine institutions such as State House of Assembly and National Assembly not consider it necessary making proper findings of documents submitted to them. Most time it is the press that usually expose such scandal as done in the cases of Salisu Buhari and Kemi Adeosun. Those institutions by the failure have contributed to the national embarrassment. There is nothing bad having the desire to serve one’s fatherland but in the cause of doing that one must be very honest .Sometime people take certain things for granted which eventually work against them. When Mrs Adeosun was involving in the deal of forging the NYSC exemption certificate, it might never occur to her that such thing would eventually bring her waterloo. This is more the reason why that before you act, think very well. It is very unfortunate that such a brilliant lady ended up that way. In this there is big lesson for all of us. There are secret things people do sometime that they believe will not be exposed but when it eventually burst they then realise their foolishness. This again brings us to the issue of what the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) is all about. General Yakubu Gowon that introduced the scheme that was must be highly commended. There is no doubt the scheme is meant to integrate the Nigerian youth from different parts of the country to have the sense of belonging anywhere they find themselves. The fact still remains today that the scheme seems to have outlive its usefulness. No wonder that some people have funnily renamed the scheme (NYSC) as Now Your Suffering Continue. What many Corpers go through sometime are very disheartening, raging from rejection from where they are posted to do their national assignment to other forms of molestations. This is not ought to be as they should be seen as the pride of the nation. Despite this many youth are not discouraged from going through the scheme. There are graduates who are even above the age of 30 but bring down their ages to enable them take part in the scheme. This actually gives credence to the assertion that many people are involved in the falsification of their ages. Rather than creating a situation where people are encouraged to falsify age, why not the scheme be made optional? If it has been optional, I believe the like of Adeosun would not have found herself in such a mess because she would not have been desperate to have such certificate hoping to serve her fatherland in the high level. To me the present situation in the scheme wherein you cannot get employed in the country except you have gone through the NYSC or get exemption certificate will deny the nation the chance of benefiting intellectually ,economically and politically from her citizens who were born and bred in foreign countries and have all their education there. If we have such Nigerians who have made great impact in their various fields of human endeavour in the foreign countries and these people are invited to the country to make contribution to their fatherland, should they be sent back for not having been involved in the NYSC scheme? As long as the unnecessary age pegging continues to be in vogue in every field of human endeavour where vacancies exit, so long we will continue to see people who are desperate to beat the standing rules to their own advantages. As for those politicians who are not ready to learn from history , but in their desperation go about manufacturing fake documents to claim what they are not, they must surely know that they are on their way to become the victims of history. REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON PLEA OF FAIR COMMENT OR QUALIFIED PRIVILEGE It should be borne in mind that once the plea of fair comment or qualified privilege is made out, as it has been in the present case, the inference of malice is rebutted, and the burden is thrown upon the plaintiff of showing and proving ‘express malice’ against the defendants. This is generally known as ‘malice in fact’ and to be able to discharge this onus at the trial, it is important that the plaintiff should deliver a reply, alleging express malice and giving particulars of the facts from which such malice is to be inferred .” Per IBEKWE, JSC in Bakare Vs. Ibrahim (1973) 6 SC 205 THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On duty on party alleging forgery of document It is trite that a party in proceedings who alleges forgery of a document must not only plead the document but also provide the particulars he relies upon. See Chief Michael Udo Vs. Chief Christopher Eshiet (1994) 8 NWLR (Pt. 363) Pg. 483; AMINU Vs. OGUNYEBI (2004) 10 NWLR (Pt. 882) Pg. 479 Para H For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for your copies of LAW PRACTICE KIT and LEGAL LUMINARIES. Call or text 08055476823, 08164683735 or email:rasheedibraheem68@yahoo.com. Your library is incomplete without these books. 23rd September 2018]]>
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