Certificate Palaver
Unarguably, the biggest issue the Jonathan Campaign Organisation had hoped to use to nail Buhari until the APC presidential candidate was forced to forcefully respond to it last Wednesday was the retired General’s educational qualifications. The APC presidential candidate had averred in an affidavit he deposed before an Abuja High Court that all his certificates were with the Secretary, Military Board, while submitting his presidential nomination form to INEC. But the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation had asked INEC to disqualify Buhari over his failure to attach his certificates to his nomination form as stated in the Electoral Act.

The Electoral Commission had retorted that it has no power to disqualify any candidate as only the courts are empowered to do so by the Electoral Act. In his response, the APC presidential candidate had argued that he had also not attached copies of his certificates to the nomination forms he submitted to INEC in his previous contests for the presidency. But the position of PDP that Buhari risks disqualification was supported by Olisa Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association who told Channels Television that the nomination form used for the 2015 elections is different from the one used for previous elections.

However, Brig.-Gen. Olaleye, Director, Army Public Relations told some newspapers that the Army has copies of certificates of its serving and retired men while the officers are also expected to have the original copies of their credentials. The PDP had relied on the assertion by the lawyer to renew its demand for disqualification of Buhari by INEC even as it embarked on campaign on the mainstream and social media to force the APC presidential candidate to come clean on his educational qualifications, especially the WASC certificate listed as minimum qualifications for contesting the presidency. This magazine gathered that the APC presidential candidates had actually requested for copies of the last weekend in his attempt to douse the controversies. But before he could even look at what was sent to him, Brigadier-General Olaleye, had curiously called another press conference where he asserted: “The Nigerian Army does not have the original copy of his (Buhari) West African Examinations Council, WAEC result or a certified true copy.” Some sources told this magazine last week that the Army might have been put under pressure to address the press conference as a way of further muddling up the PDP precipitated certificate controversy. Buhari himself said he was surprised by the claim of the Army.

The release of the retired General’s result by his Government College, Katsina, the secondary school which he attended was expected to put an end to the controversies. The School confirmed Buhari’s claim that he undertook the 1961 University of Cambridge West African School Certificate Examinations and obtained five credits in English Language, Geography, Hausa Language, History and Health Science. The Cambridge print- out also shows the result of 17 other candidates at the centre, including the late Gen. Yar’Adua, a one-time Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters.

Before the release of the result by the school, Buhari had at a press conference in Kano told journalists that fixation on his educational qualifications was orchestrated by the PDP to take away attention from the issues of the campaign which he identifies as “the scandalous level of unemployment of millions of our people, the state of the insecurity, the pervasive official corruption which has improverished our people and the lack of concern of the government to do anything other than deification of power at all costs.”

Even then, the PDP is not ready to give up as it wasted no time in accusing Buhari of perjury over his initial claims that his certificate was with the Military Board. Sources told this magazine last week that PDP’s mudslinging of Buhari will continue as long as the APC presidential candidate’s popularity and acceptance continue to soar.