As controversy still rages over the failure of former Head of State and
Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress(APC) ,General
Muhammadu Buhari to present his Senior School Leaving Certificate (SSCE)
or its equivalent as required by law, a human rights group, the Centre for
Human rights and social Justice(CHRSJ) has urged the APC Presidential
Candidate not to lay a bad precedent in Nigeria political landscape.
The Centre noted that it had never happened in the history
of the country’s political firmament where a candidate in an election
would tell electoral body to go and collect his or her certificates
to be attached to his or her nomination from third party,insisting
that Presidential candidate of All progressives Congress(APC) was
trying to lay a bad precedent in the nation’s politics.
The group in a statement signed by Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman and made
available to Pointblanknews.com called on the all lovers of democracy not
to allow this illegality to take place.
Similarly,the rights’ group also berated Mr. Itse Sagay to stop
misinterpreting the constitution of the land by misinterpreting the
Buhari’s Secondary School Leaving Certificate to a Master Degree which
might lead to the misleading of unsuspecting good people of the
nation,throwing its weight behind the position of a Constitutional and
human rights Lawyer,Chief Mike Ozekhome that Buhari was not qualified
to contest for the office of the President because he could not
present his least required certificate to INEC,noted that the
provision of constitution and electoral act were already cleared on
the subject matter,adding that “It is only in Nigeria that anybody
could get Master Degree without pre-requiste requirement.
It averred that the antecedents of Mr Sagay during the Tinubu’s
Chicagogate saga was still fresh in the memory of Nigeria citizens and
he should not mislead the public again but to advise the APC
Presidential candidate to show his academic qualifications to INEC
like other Presidential candidates,noting that “somebody that is yet
to be elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria were
still looking for special treatment against the wishes of millions of
Nigeria.what we realized is that anybody can become anything under
Military rule because Military in governance of the country is an
aberration of highest order where they did what they like at will
without challenging and that is why they destroyed this country during
their reign”.
They further stressed that it was advisable for General Buhari to
honourably withdraw from the race so as to douse the tension in the
polity,advising main opposition in the land not to waste precious time
of Nigeria people by replacing him with qualifying candidate from the
party before it might too late.
The group maintained that the due provision of law must be followed on
this issue of Buhari’s certificate saga,urging the Norther Elders to
prevail on Genera Buhari to include his claimed academic qualifications to
the nomination forms submitted to the electoral body as required by law.
Comrade Sulaiman who doubles as Convener,Save Lagos
Group(SLG),therefore called on General Muhammadu Buhari to present
one certificate to nation’s electoral body so as to prove to the
world that he had certain level of education,stressing that Buhari
should bear it in mind that Nigeria is under democratic rule,not
Military rule where any unknown soldier could become Head of State
without questioning and Buhari should ready to abide by the dictate of
democratic ethos,norms and values in order to show Nigeria that General
Buhari is the agent of needed Change” .
According to him,”our respected General Muhammadu Buhari should bear
it in mind that we are no more in Military era where anything goes and
nobody dares asking question because of obnoxious decree.He should
know that this is democratic era where people will like to know the
privacy of their leader.Being a former Head of State does not qualify
Buhari to be democratic President until he met the requirement on
provision of law through constitution and electoral act.There is need
for us no matter highly placed in the society to respect the rule of
law in order for our country to given the needed change by her
leaders.
“We want to use this medium to urge all the Presidential and
Vice-presidential candidates to show their claimed certificate in the
INEC nomination form in one of our national dailies for proper
verification by Nigeria public and it will be part of effort to clear
air on their certificates saga”