The twists, turns in Buhari’s certificate saga

Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA, examines the unfolding scenario around the certificate saga involving the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari.
The certificate saga involving General Muhammadu Buhari, former head of state and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has, in the last three weeks, become an abiku of some sorts. When it was thought that the matter had been laid to rest, another leg of it would surface. And so it has been since the matter broke into the open immediately after the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made public particulars of presidential candidates for February’s elections, in line with the provisions of the 2014 Electoral Act.
Though the leadership of the APC attempted to belittle the issue by indicating that it was an affront on the military for Nigerians to ask a General and former Head of state to provide evidence of the certificates he earned, the matter was somehow kept alive by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose spokesmen continued to insist that Buhari must show his certificates.
Trouble started, when Buhari, instead of supplying copies of his school certificate, and attach same to the forms he filled with the INEC, approached an Abuja High Court to swear an affidavit, indicating that his original certificates are with the military. Debates went back and forth. While APC elements insisted that their candidate had fulfilled the provisions of the law which requires a candidate to be educated up to at least secondary school, Buhari had in an affidavit he deposed to at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on November 24, 2014 and submitted to the INEC on December 18, 2014, said that his certificates were with the military.
The affidavit read: “I am the above-named 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 purposes.”
Immediately the contents of Buhari’s affidavit were made public, pressure shifted to the Nigerian Army to clear the air on Buhari’s certificates. Did he leave his originals with the Force or there is something more than meets the eyes? One of Buhari’s handlers, Rotimi Fashakin, an engineer, was to further compound the situation when he alleged that Buhari’s certificates were actually seized by the military following the 1985 coup, which ousted him. Whatever it was, the question that will not go away remains: where is Buhari’s certificate?
The Director of Public Relations, Nigerian Army, Brigadier Geneneral Olajide Laleye, said in a media interview that the Army does not keep original certificates of its officers but keep custody of photocopies of their documents while the owners also keep their original certificates.
Also on Tuesday, another twist to the tale crept up as the Army announced categorically that it does not have Buhari’s certificates in custody. The Army, which spoke through Laleye, alleged that Buhari entered the force without requisite papers but with a recommendation from his school principal. He said: “The media hype on Major General Buhari’s credentials as well as the numerous requests made by individuals and corporate bodies to the Army on this issue have necessitated that we provide the facts as contained in the retired senior officer’s service record.
“Records available indicate that Major General Buhari applied to join the military as a form six student of the Provincial Secondary School, Katsina on 18 October 1961. His application was duly endorsed by the principal of the school, who also wrote a report on him and recommended him suitable for military commission.
“It is a practice in the Army that before candidates are shortlisted for commissioning into the officers’ cadre of the service, the selection board verifies the original copies of credentials that are presented. However, there is no available record to show that this process was followed in the 1960s.
“Nevertheless, the entry made on Form 199A at the point of documentation after commission as an officer indicated that the former Head of State obtained the WASC in 1961 with credits in relevant subjects.
“Neither the original certified true copy nor the statement of result of Maj. Gen. Buhari’s WASC result is in his personal file. I hope this explanation will put to rest, the raging controversy surrounding the secondary school credentials of Maj. Gen. Buhari as it affects the Nigerian Army.”
But the APC thundered back, accusing the PDP of attempting to destroy the military. The APC in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, warned that the PDP and the Jonathan Administration were playing a dangerous game by trying to compromise the military in order to destroy Buhari.
The party said: “In an interview with the Punch on Jan. 4th 2015, Olaleye said: ‘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.’
“Is Brig-Gen. Olaleye now saying that he did not make that statement? If he did, what has happened between then and now to make him to recant? It will be interesting to know what has transpired between then and now.”
The statement further read: “Is he now saying that all those who were commissioned into the officer cadres in the 1960s did not have their certificates verified? Does this not confirm what we said that in trying to destroy Buhari, the PDP and the Jonathan Administration will end up destroying the army as an institution? Or is it only Buhari that was commissioned into the army in the 1960s.”
“Those who are behind the latest controversy should now tell Nigerians what happened to Gen. Buhari’s certificates between the time of his affidavit and now,” it said.
The party quoted Section 131 (d) of the Constitution: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of President if he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent”.
According to the APC, the meaning and interpretation of “School Certificate level or its equivalent” can be found in the Constitution under part IV, Section 318. In that Section, a “School Certificate or its equivalent” is defined quite succinctly thus:
(a) A Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent, Grade II Teacher’s Certificate, the City and Guilds Certificate; or
(b) Education up to Secondary School Certificate Level; or
(c) Primary Six School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent.
“However, we know that the PDP and the Jonathan Administration have constituted themselves into a court of law and will like nothing more than the disqualification of our candidate so they will face no challenge in next month’s election. This is wishful thinking,” it said.
The APC said it was worrisome that Nigeria has now reached a level where people are giving “the impression that a man who rose to become a Major-General in the Nigerian Army does not have requisite qualifications?
“What really is happening in our country if some politicians have now decided to engage in an action that will amount to dragging the military into politics, dividing an institution that is a symbol of national unity, trivializing the service of those who fought to keep Nigeria one and ridiculing the same country it is supposed to be ruling?
More twists were to creep into the tale, when Buhari was forced to address the issue of certificate saga. The General said he actually sat for Cambridge University/WASCE in 1961 and graduated in Second Division.
Buhari said: “I attended Provincial Secondary School, Kaduna, now Government College, Kaduna, and sat the University of Cambridge/WASCE in 1961, the year we graduated, alongside (now the late) Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (Chief of General Staff under Gen Olusegun Obasanjo as Head of State) and Justice Umar Abdullahi, a former President of Court of Appeal. My examination number is 8202220.” He also said that he has requested his old school, Government College, Kaduna, to make available his result.
From an obviously innocuous issue, the certificate saga has dragged Buhari all the way. It is an unnecessary dent the former head of state should have avoided by presenting the required papers.
But, the saga has already raised a number of issues: what happened to the affidavit sworn to by Buhari which indicated that his certificates were with the military? What happens to the INEC form he did not attach requisite documents to? Opinions will remain divided on these questions, unless a competent court of jurisdiction makes requisite pronouncements.
In response to a request on the Buhari certificate, the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) now called Cambridge Assessment stated: “We can only confirm or verify results at the direct request of or with the permission of a candidate.” According to the body, “This is in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection act 1998 and Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.”
Against this background, the onus is now on Buhari to avail himself of the opportunity by approaching the UCLES on his academic record so as to set the record straight concerning his academic certificates and other issues surrounding his qualification to contest in the presidential election, which is less than three weeks away. Already, the PDP hierarchy and the party’s presidential Campaign Organisation have accused the APC standard bearer of perjury and called on the Police and other security agencies to do the needful.