The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has insisted that the Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari should produce at least secondary school certificate or be disqualified from the Presidential race.
A statement from the Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP Presidential campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode said that if General Buhari cannot produce 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.”
Fani-kayode argued that it is disingenuous for Buhari to say that he contested previous elections and that the issue of his qualifications did not arise. He said that if INEC had 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.
“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 U.S. 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.
“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.
“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.” [myad]
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