This is the fourth time former Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) is running for the highest office of the land. Before now, Buhari had contested the presidency on the platform of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) in 2003 and 2007; and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011. Now, he has picked the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the February 14 presidential election. Buhari is presently facing one of the greatest challenges of his political career as a result of issues arising from the affidavit he swore to at an Abuja High Court.
In the said affidavit dated November 24, 2014, and which he attached to his presidential nomination form, the former Head of State noted: “I am the abovenamed person and deponent to this affidavit therein. All my academic qualifications, documents as filled in my presidential form, President APC/001/2015, are currently with the Secretary, Military Board, as of the time of presenting this affidavit. The affidavit is made in good faith and for record purpose.”
The affidavit was stamped and received at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters on December 18, 2014, the closing date for the submission of names of candidates for national elections by the political parties to INEC. In the same manner, Arc. Mohammed Namadi Sambo, the presidential running mate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), deposed to an affidavit in court, claiming that his certificates were burnt.
However, unlike Buhari, Sambo was able to get confirmation from the authorities of the university where he did his first and second degrees. Alhassan Garba, registrar of the Ahmed Below University (ABU) Zaria, who signed the letters, admitted that Sambo studied in the university.
The first letter reads: “To Whom it may Concern: Mohammed Namadi Sambo; I certify that the above-named person having completed an approved course of study and passed the prescribed examinations was awarded the Bachelor of Science (Architecture) with Second Class Honours (Lower Division) in 1976 by the Senate of this University.
His original certificate got burnt. Please treat his case in view of this certification. Thank you.” Again in the second letter, Garba admitted that “the abovenamed person having completed an approved course of study and passed the prescribed examinations was awarded the Master of Science (Architecture) on May 25, 1978 by the Senate of this University. His original certificate got burnt. Please treat his case in view of this certification.
Thank you.” In the case of Buhari, he did not state whether his original certificates are among the papers and documents with the Secretary of the Military Board, or that they got burnt/lost, neither was he able to get confirmation letter from the Board to support his claim. While the military authorities admitted that his certificates are with them, the institution however, denied that the original certificates are with them. Brigadier-General Olajide Laleye, the Director, Army Public Relations, on enquiry said the army did not keep original copies of certificates of its officers, whether serving or retired. “Every serving and retired army officer has, at least, a copy of his certificates and credentials kept in the Nigerian Army, while that same serving and retired officer has copies of those same certificates and credentials.
“The original certificate of any officer or soldier is only needed at the point of entry into the service, either as a cadet officer entering the Nigerian Defence Academy, or when being interviewed as recruits to be sent to the depot for training. “That is so because they are needed to verify what were in the photocopies supplied by them or from the necessary examining bodies,” Laleye stated.
The former head of state is however, not helping matters. Instead of offering further explanations into the matter, he chose rather to be antagonistic. Buhari’s media assistant, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, accused the Army of being politicised by allowing an officer to “challenge the certificates of his superior just to cast an aspersion on him and also favour his principal who would be vying for the same election.”
Fashakin said the controversy over Buhari’s certificate was a desperate attempt to stop him from contesting the presidential election. “Before now, Gen. Buhari had contested elections for three occasions. Are you going to say that he didn’t present any certificate for those three times? He also had risen to the position of a Major General in the Army and all his credentials are well documented by the Army in those days. It is not only that he rose to the position of a Major General; he also rose to the position of a military Head of State.
“Now, the Army of that same country claims that he does not have a certificate. It is something that should puzzle us as a people. The Chief of Army Staff said that he does not know what people are talking about, meaning that they do not have records of his certification to have passed certain courses, including academic attainments.” The Army did not deny that Buhari’s record is with them, and they are ready to make them available, they only wanted the proper procedure to be followed.
Laleye said the Nigerian Army does not refuse to give anybody his credentials if the due process is followed. Section 131 of the 1999 Constitution provides that a candidate must be educated up to at least secondary school level to be able to contest for the presidency of this country. Also Section 137(j) indicates that a candidate can be disqualified from seeking the election if he submits a forged certificate to INEC. In 1999, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, lost his positions both as Speaker and a member of the House when it was discovered that the certificate he presented to INEC for his election, was forged.
Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, challenged General Buhari to prove his innocence in the certificate saga, by producing his original certificates, noting that his failure to produce his certificates would amount to a clear confirmation that he had something to hide. But a human rights lawyer, Tunji Abayomi has risen in defence of the former Head of State.
According to Abayomi, the constitution did not prescribe the presentation or show of any certificate to qualify for election to the office of president. “While a certificate may unequivocally show that a contestant has been educated up to at least school certificate level, his education without a certificate may show, again unequivocally that he has been educated up to the equivalent of school certificate level.
“The APC screening committee was made up of several eminent highly educated and enlightened men and one woman. They came to the conclusion after putting APC presidential aspirants through a most rigorous test that all the APC aspirants met the constitutional qualifications, including education, to contest for election to the office of president. “They confirmed this by awarding them a certificate.
The qualification set by the constitution for contest is the level of education, not its certificate. “With reference to General Buhari having regard to his unimpeachable military training, an irrefutable presumption was properly made by the APC screening committee that he met the education qualification set by the constitution. “Those who contest this or who intend to contest that he met the education qualification of Section 131(d) have the burden to disprove the irrefutable presumption, not General Buhari”, Aboyemi argued.
But Adeyeye warned Abayomi and his likes not to lay “a dangerous prec-edent whereby some persons with questionable certificates would start contesting elections and claim that they don’t need to show us their certificates, adding that it is very compulsory that Buhari “presents his certificates, otherwise, how are we going to prove that he was educated to the school certificate level or its equivalent. “He is a former Head of State and I am sure that when he served as Head of State, the first thing he would ask anyone he wanted to recruit is the certificate. “Is he telling us that if he becomes president, people will not need certificates to be appointed to offices? As a leader, he must lead by example,” he added.
He advised the former Head of State to obtain a Certified True Copy (CTC) of his certificates if he has any to show. Another dimension was added by the former governorship candidate of Nigeria Advance Party (NAP) in Anambra State, Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo who noted that various pronouncements of the Supreme Court specified that the ability to read and write was all that should entitle a citizen to contest for election. The PDP said it is not bothered on the qualification of the candidate APC wants to field for the election.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, said at the appropriate time Buhari’s qualification would be called to question. “We do not require them to have a certificate. They can even field somebody who has never gone to school. It’s not our business; it’s the business of INEC. At the appropriate time, he will be questioned, but for purposes of politics, we do not want to start making comments on such,” Metuh said. PDP national secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo had earlier described Buhari as “a semi-illiterate jackboot.”
On its part, INEC said it would not like to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the qualification of any of the candidates. The commission also refused to disclose the certificates Buhari presented when he contested the three previous presidential elections. Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, said the concern of the commission at the moment is to give the country free and fair elections.
“We would not want to have anything to do with the certificate issue. We view it as an issue between the political parties, which the commission would not want to be involved in. Please leave us out of that and I would not want to comment on that. Our job is to give Nigerians the best of the election and not to join politicians and political parties in their politicking,” Idowu said. INEC has, however, said only the court can disqualify any candidate from contesting next month’s polls.
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