Shittu: For Evading NYSC
BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Two ministers in the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari have been disqualified from contesting the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC in their respective states. While Aisha Alhassan will not be allowed to run for the ticket in Taraba State, Adebayo Shittu will be denied opportunity in Oyo State.
Though no reason has yet been given for disqualifying Alhassan who ran the last election on the platform of the APC, in Oyo, the party’s reason is that Shittu did not participate in the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC scheme. The NYSC had faulted the excuse of the minister that his service at the state legislature then was enough to be considered for service of fatherland.
But the two of them should have seen the handwriting on the wall when they were barred from the inauguration of state chairmen of the party in Abuja last June.
Prior to that experience their factions had also been humbled at the state level. Ahead of the congresses Mrs. Alhassan had stirred the hornets nest when she threw her weight behind former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the office of president. That was before Abubakar left APC for the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. Could she be suffering for that gaffe?