Hannatu Musawa Biography – Age, Career, NYSC Controversy, and Net worth
TSB News reports that Hannatu Musawa is a lawyer, politician and former spokesperson for the APC government.
Age
Hannatu Musawa is said to be in her late 40s.
Career
Hannatu Musawa is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme court of Nigeria, she is also a qualified solicitor in England & wales, UK. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Hannatu has worked as a litigation lawyer and Legal advisor to a number of private companies, she worked with the law firm of Late chief Akpamgbo. Hannatu founded the firm Hanney Musawa & associates.
NYSC controversy
Ms Musawa has for weeks been in the eye of the storm for failing, during her confirmation hearing at the Nigerian senate, to provide evidence that she participated in the mandatory national youth service programme after her graduation from the university.
That controversy deepened in the past days following the disclosure by the NYSC that the minister is currently undergoing her national youth service, sparking calls by her critics that she should vacate office.
But PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report today that Ms Musawa’s national service saga has a longer history and is far more complicated than is publicly known.
A review of a cache of documents and interviews with people familiar with the matter revealed that Ms Musawa and NYSC authorities had battled for at least three years over her real NYSC status and a withheld certificate.
While the lawyer claimed she completed her national service in 2003 and should be issued the withheld certificate, the NYSC claimed she absconded midway into her service. After the years-long back and forth failed to produce results, Ms Musawa then opted to be remobilised to serve out whatever period of time the NYSC believes is outstanding for her. “We advised her to sue the NYSC over the matter,”. “But she refused, saying she preferred a peaceful resolution of the matter.”
An NYSC discharge certificate issued in Ms Musawa’s name in 2003 exists and is in the custody of the Corps, according to documents seen by this newspaper. However, authorities are withholding the document after accusing her of absconding at a point during her service year. On her part, Ms Musawa said the NYSC was not diligent and careful enough in its search for her record and that she was not accorded a fair hearing to prove that she did not abscond.
In 2020, former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated her for appointment as the national commissioner representing Nigeria’s northwest geopolitical zone on the board of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM).
In preparing for her screening by the Senate, Ms Musawa wrote the NYSC through its Kaduna State coordinator requesting the replacement of her NYSC certificate.
According to her, the NYSC certificate was part of the documents that got burnt in an inferno that razed her Asokoro residence in 2019
“Last year, on Saturday, 14th September 2019, at approximately 5:52 pm, a fire broke out in my house at No 15, Justice Lawal Uwais Street, Asokoro, Abuja. Many of my documents were lost in the fire, including which was my NYSC certificate,” she wrote in the letter dated 30 September 2020. “Therefore, I am writing to apply for the replacement of my NYSC Certificate that was lost in the fire incident.”
The Kaduna State NYSC searched for Ms Musawa’s records in its certificate issuance registers but did not find any matching information. The State Coordinator, Isa Wana, therefore, forwarded Ms Musawa’s request to the Corps Certification Department at the NYSC headquarters in Abuja.
“Her details could not be found in any of our certificate issuance registers of 2001, 2002 and 2003. She could not also remember her state code number and place of primary assignment for ease of further investigation,” Mr Wana wrote in a letter dated 7 October 2020 to the NYSC certificate department.
Days after Mr Wana’s letter to the NYSC headquarters, the corps certification department found Ms Musawa’s NYSC certificate, indicating that she never collected the certificate and that it did not get burnt in her home.
However, because she had claimed in her letters to the NYSC and obtained a police report that the certificate was part of the destroyed properties in the fire that gutted her home, the NYSC declined to issue her the certificate.
The NYSC also accused her of absconding during her service year as it could not find her details in the Kaduna State office where she claimed to have completed her service. Her failure to get the NYSC certificate at the time ultimately led to her disqualification for the PENCOM appointment in November 2020.
Now aware that her certificate is in the custody of the Corps, Ms Musawa continued to push for its release. In letters to the NYSC, she insisted that she duly completed the NYSC in Kaduna, where she was redeployed after serving for five months in Ebonyi state.
Documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed that the minister was called up for national service in September 2002 and posted to the Ministry of Justice, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. Five months into the service year, in February 2003, she was redeployed to Kaduna State.
The NYSC insisted there is no record that the then corps member continued her service after redeploying to Kaduna. But Ms Musawa said the corps only needed a further careful search for her records in Ebonyi and Kaduna to determine the authenticity of her claims that she completed her service. She also pleaded to be given an opportunity to provide documents, including copies of letters from Manema Universal Limited in Kaduna, her NYSC employer during the last part of her service year.
In December 2020, Ms Musawa wrote to the NYSC governing board, asking that the board intervene by giving her a fair hearing regarding the matter. But in a 17 March 2021 reply, the Board said her case had been declared closed, and no further search of her documents was necessary. “The board prays that you accept its decision in good faith and that this becomes the end of this matter as far as the NYSC is concerned,” the letter, signed by Board Secretary Abdullahi Jikamshi, said.
Net Worth
Hannatu Musawa net worth has been estimated at $500,000.