TheCable

Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to produce his secondary school certificate implies that his entire career in the army was based on falsehood, Femi Fani-Kayode, media director of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential  campaign organisation, said on Monday.

Buhari, who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, had tendered an affidavit in place of his academic credentials to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In the affidavit, he stated that his academic certificates were in the possession of the military board.

According to the Nigerian constitution, to contest the presidential election a candidate must possess a minimum of secondary school certificate.

Based on that, Fani-Kayode is insisting that Buhari’s failure to show his school certificate disqualifies him from contesting in the February 14 presidential election.

“It is disingenuous for Buhari to say that he contested previous elections and that the issue of his qualifications did not arise. Had INEC not complied with the Electoral Act this year, which requires that they paste the academic credentials of all the presidential candidates, Nigerians would have remained ignorant of the fact that Buhari has probably been submitting affidavits for the past elections,” he said.

“The fact that he got away with it in 2003, 2007 and 2011 does not make it right. The minimum that Nigerians require from Buhari is the presentation of his secondary school certificate which enabled him to gain admission into the Nigerian Military College in 1962 and on which basis he became a commissioned officer of the Nigerian army.

“This forms the fulcrum for the subsequent courses that he attended as he rose in the army, including the US War College. Failure to produce that school certificate implies that Buhari’s entire career in the Army was based on falsehood which cannot stand. This brings to question the admission system/policy into the army in the early 1960s.”

Fani-Kayode also reasoned that rules might have been bent for Buhari to gain admission into the Nigeria military college in 1962 without a secondary school certificate.

“Were the rules bent for certain individuals in fulfillment of the quota system? Anyone that reads General Alabi Isama’s book, which was published last year, will know that this was the case. In fact, Alabi Isama went as far as to allege that some Nigerians were admitted into the military academy without the necessary qualifications like school certificate,” he said.

“We believe that Buhari was one of those people and this is why he is unable to produce his certificate. The truth is that he was never qualified for entry into the military academy in the first place and consequently he should never have become a commissioned officer let alone a man that rose to the rank of general. At best he ought to have remained a non-commissioned officer.

“As long as he cannot produce that secondary school certificate, we believe that he is not qualified to run for the presidency of Nigeria. This is a matter of law and not sentiment. Buhari, just like any other Nigerian, must be compelled to abide by the law and he must prove his eligibility for the presidential election by simply producing his secondary school certificate.”