Oladele: Buhari’s certificate saga and eligibility question Friday, 09 January 2015 00:00 Written by Akin Oladele Category: Columnists Hits: 4 Print Email View Comments CITIZENS of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who are worried about the qualifications of General Muhammadu Buhari as a leader who ruled as a military head of state in Nigeria between 1983 and 1985, do have every reason, given the emerging facts about his alleged inability to present the minimum requirement of a leaving school certificate, to question his moral credentials for seeking the position of the president of Nigeria. The emerging disclosures bring to the fore how and what qualifications were used to recruit him into the military without a minimum school leaving certificate, where he rose to the rank of a General and even became the Head of State through a military coup that truncated a democratically elected government in 1983. Beyond the moral burden of human rights abuses and other sundry anti-democratic practices in his public records, we find that even in other spheres of democratic practices and in particular on the matter of due processes, his disdain for democratic conduct has not changed. Academic qualification is a threshold issue that cannot be waived for any citizen no matter how highly placed and irrespective of whichever region such individual comes from except as provided by the constitution. Thus the question must be asked: is Buhari or any other citizen qualified to contest election into the office of the president without meeting the minimum constitutional requirement? A perusal of the Nigerian constitution at Section 131 unequivocally stated that: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of President if: (a) He is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; (b) He has attained the age of forty years; (c) He is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and (d) He has been educated up to at least School certificate level or its equivalent. It is to be noted that Section 131 (d) is a specific directional order for all candidates to show proof of education up to a minimum standard not below school certificate or its equivalent. But from what INEC has published, Buhari has not submitted any personal particular of minimum school leaving certificate for the 2015 election and, from INEC documents displayed in all constituencies, he also did not submit anything in 2011 and never referred the umpire then to the Secretary of the Military Board as well as previous elections he contested as evidenced in all available INEC records until this current discovery. If the constitution did not require proof, it would not specify a minimum. To strengthen this claim, the extant Electoral Act directs that such proof must be sworn to by each candidate at a Court under Section 31 (2) to (5) viz (2): “The list of information submitted by each candidate shall be accompanied by an affidavit sworn to by the candidate at the federal high court, High Court of a state or the FCT, indicating that he has fulfilled all the constitutional requirements for election into that office.” (3) “The Commission shall within seven days of the receipt of the personal particular of the candidate,(emphasis here is personal particular and not INEC form given to fill nor court document like affidavit) and publish same in the constituency where the candidate intends to contest” (4). A person may apply to the Commission for a copy of nomination form affidavit and any other document submitted by a candidate at an election and the Commission shall, upon payment of a prescribed fee, issue the person with a certified copy of the documents within 14 days.” (5) “Any person who has reasonable grounds to believe that any information given in the affidavit or any document submitted by that candidate is false may file a suit at the federal high court, High Court of a state or FCT against such person seeking a declaration that the information contained in the affidavit is false.” (6)“ If the court determines that any of the information contained in the affidavit of any document submitted by that candidate is false, the court shall issue an order disqualifying the candidate from contesting the election.” It should be noted that for elections to the office of the president and for the purpose of display of particulars of candidates for all presidential elections, the entire country is taken as one constituency i.e. the 774 LGAs of the 36 states including the FCT where these particulars have been displayed. It would seem that a perusal of the affidavit of nomination as submitted by General Buhari and as published in all INEC offices, as well as the copies of his similar INEC documentations for 2011 revealed that a man who claims to be of integrity may not have been true to Nigerians. It can be seen that as indicated in Section 31(6), there is reasonable grounds to question the veracity of the declaration in the affidavit where it indicates that all documents relating to the personal particulars of General Buhari are with the Secretary of the Military Board. First in the INEC Form CF 001 for 2015 filled by General Buhari at Section C of the form, the instruction on the form clearly states “Attach evidence of all educational qualifications”; Was this done? Yet an affidavit was sworn. Curiously, did he refer INEC to this board in 2011 in his records available for anyone who cares to see how Buhari has contested elections severally? Did he meet the mandatory constitutional requirement or has he been treated preferentially? Is Buhari above the law of the land or should we suspend or amend the constitution to accommodate him? It is common knowledge that military board like any others do not keep or retain original copies of personal particulars of individuals such as birth certificates, passports, and academic credentials of any personnel, especially retired personnel after over three decades. It must also be stated, that INEC erred in law by publishing the name of a candidate without receiving the personal particulars of the candidate within seven days of receiving his nomination forms as indicated in Section 31(3). This is a tragedy illustrating that an individual could be so powerful that the law has to be ignored to accommodate him. Certainly, INEC printed nomination forms or High Court affidavits are in no way or by any stretch of definitions, the same as personal particulars such as school leaving certificate. The Nigerian constitution is rubbished and no longer respected. What is more tragic is the fact that otherwise respected Yoruba political elite who know the significance of the education which our late sage Awolowo gave to us, that liberated the sons and daughters of Oduduwa, are the ones promoting a Buhari who has no minimum school leaving certificate as a Nigerian leader. For an office as important as that of the president, someone who aspires to it should possess nothing less than a first degree; but even the minimum school leaving certificate for Buhari is being shrouded in mystery in the 21st century. Worse still, a few elite are the ones putting up this ridiculous argument for a man who projects himself as above board. The same Buhari who has showed disdain for the South West when he sent people to ransack the home of Pa Awo without a court warrant. And the same man who felt that because Lagos in the south would develop too fast ahead of the north, cancelled the metro-line project and went ahead to pay hundreds of millions of United States dollars in compensation that was more than what was needed to have the project completed for Lagosians. It is a paradox that one of the states that its funds are being used to sponsor Buhari is Lagos State. The whole essence of the provision of the law, as quoted above, for citizens to apply for certified copies of such personal particulars is now defeated. How could citizens obtain from INEC a certified true copy as required by law when INEC has been referred to the Secretary of Military Board? That the candidate, General Buhari from records available has perpetuated this shows that our democracy is in trouble because it is now the rule of men and not the rule of law. This development when added to the weight of his record of civil rights abuses while in office, portrays him as anti-democratic. That INEC saddled with a statutory duty to promote good knowledge and practices of democracy (Section 1(2) of the extant Electoral Act) published as a candidate in all its offices the affidavit of a candidate whose personal particulars it did not receive within the prescribed time frame by law is most unfortunate to say the least. • Oladele wrote from Ibadan, Oyo State.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 06:31:12 +0000
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