The presidency on Friday mocked the opposition and critics of
President Muhammadu Buhari after the West African Examinations Council,
WAEC, presented certificate to him.
Garba Shehu, his spokesman, in an article titled “President Buhari,
WAEC and PDP’s Toxic Air”, said the controversy was embarrassing.
“This is a god-sent, with WAEC being a non-political entity. This
should put to rest the absurd allegations by the People’s Democratic
Party, PDP, brought up again and again, that he did not attend a
secondary school”, he wrote.
“The unreasonable position of the PDP had been sustained all along in
spite of testimony by classmates who read with him in school and
graduated together, and that fact that a court of law had given a ruling
on the matter.
“In 2014-2015 when they raked up the issue, I remember that it took
the courage of the then college Principal to issue a statement of
results from available records. In doing so, he defied the ruling PDP
government in the state which asked him not to.
“At the time we got the results sheet, reports said that the
government had determined to send arsonists to burn the school to ashes
so that the existing records will be obliterated.
“This was against the backdrop of the shocking claim by the Army
Records office in Lokoja, that they didn’t keep any records of General
Buhari as a military officer.
“Curiously, the Army Records office had once come under Muhammadu
Buhari, as Military Secretary who, during his tenure streamlined the
records of the entire officer corps, and could not, by any stretch of
imagination, have left his own records in a mess. General Alani
Akinrinade (Rtd) reportedly dismissed this mischief as an insult to the
military.
“After doing his conscience’s duty by daringly releasing those
results, the then government of Katsina State punished the Principal by
stripping him of his seniority and posting.
“As we said in a number of past statements, the matter of the
President’s qualification to run for office is a non-issue, nonetheless
feasted upon by the PDP which has stopped thinking and have nothing to
offer to Nigerians.
“Based on arguments that “education gives a human being the power to
discriminate between right and wrong,” the 1999 Constitution stipulates a
minimum educational qualification for citizens who intend to contest
for elections at all levels, which requires that they must possess a
secondary school education or its equivalent.
“The provision above has itself come under serious re-examination by
scholars who argue that the possession of a secondary school
certification does not necessarily mean that a person is intelligent. It
is equally argued that it is a mistake to assume that a person with a
certificate has higher knowledge or intelligence than the one who
doesn’t have.
“As far as his educational career is concerned, President Buhari
attended the Katsina Provincial Secondary School, before enrolling in
the Nigerian Military Training College, NMTC Kaduna (1962), renamed
Nigerian Defence Academy, in 1964.
“From NMTC, Muhammadu Buhari went to the Mons Officer Cadet School,
Aldershot, United Kingdom (1962-63), the Defence Services Staff College,
India (1973) and thereafter, United States Army War College, which upon
completion, awarded its graduates a Master’s degree in strategic
studies.
“In the belief that the nation has the right to know the educational
details of their president, Candidate Muhammadu Buhari laid bare
everything and tendered an affidavit in respect of the WAEC certificate.
“The masquerades wielding the real power behind the PDP, some of whom
played an active part in his overthrow as military Head of State in the
mid-eighties are deliberate in keeping this issue alive. As a
thoroughbred, toughened general, he won’t cry out that his home and
office were vandalized by scoopers when they threw him out of power.
“In meeting the eligibility for the contest in 2015, President Buhari
presented the WAEC results and the other degree and non-degree related
results. He went through the verification process in the party, the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the court. He ran
and won against the PDP.
“With these, the unnecessary controversy should have ended. It is
equally hard to fathom how such a dead issue should get the type of
attention given it by the media, considering the many matters of serious
concern to the citizens – internal security that was given a short
shrift for 16 years by the PDP; the diversification of the economy by
focusing on key sectors (apart from oil) that can create jobs and
generate revenue such as Agriculture, Solid Minerals and Manufacturing
which the Buhari administration is keenly doing; the ongoing pursuit of
more reforms and better governance; bolstered efforts towards poverty
alleviation; ending corruption and insurgency and ploughing the savings
therefrom to put in place needed infrastructure and so forth.
“Do they know that Nigeria Airways, NITEL and other pensioners they
left in the cold, unpaid when they sold public assets to cronies or to
themselves are getting their dues under this dispensation? If these
things had been done when the oil price was as high as US$140 per
barrel, Nigeria would not be in the current predicament. We would not
have suffered when we had no cash reserves but we had regular supply of
power, a good rail system, good roads and good housing. These are the
issues dear to the hearts of our people.
“In its political fight for 2019, the PDP is not relying on the big
issues of the day -security, corruption and jobs but on small,
distractive matters that take little or no account of national interest.
“But what do you expect of a group that has stopped thinking, just
blowing hot, toxic air, indulging in divisive politics and is raking up
sectional issues so that the people will forget the real issues of
corruption, infrastructure, security and economy for which they have no
plans?” He wrote.