IS BUHARI GUILTY AS CHARGED?

Sonnie Ekwowusi urges the President to apply to the military for the certified true copies of his certificates

WE MUST RAISE THE STANDARDS OF BEHAVIOUR OF PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS IN NIGERIA

President Muhammadu Buhari does not have the qualifications to seek re-election. Verdict of the people: he should be disqualified from contesting the 2019 Presidential election, but, if he manages to bulldoze his way as he did in 2015, the electorate should reject him at the polls. Unlike Atiku Abubakar and other Presidential candidates who respectively presented their academic qualifications or credentials to INEC last week, President Buhari swears to an affidavit that his qualifications including his primary six school certificate are still with the Nigerian military. You will recall that Buhari deposed to a similar affidavit in 2015. He swore that his certificates, including his primary six certificate, were with the military. But the military, through the then director of army public relations, Olajide Laleye, swiftly came out and denied it. Laleye categorically stated that the military was not in possession of Buhari’s academic qualifications. Although Major General M. Buhari applied to join the military as a form six student of the Provincial Secondary School, Katsina on 18 Oct 1961 his personal file kept with the military, according to Laleye, contains “neither the original copy, certified true copy (CTC) nor statement of result of Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s WASC result....”

Now Buhari is telling the same story he told in 2015 that his qualifications are with the military. This is a national embarrassment. Other countries are now laughing at Nigeria. They are saying that the President of Nigeria did not go to school. The paradox is that while many Nigerian graduates with First Class Honours are roaming the streets in search of elusive jobs, the certificate of the man occupying the most exalted and powerful office in Nigeria is in dispute. President Buhari’s handlers should know how to handle this. If they want to tell a lie they should tell a somewhat believable lie. To concoct a big lie that the president’s qualifications are with the military, as I earlier said, is a big national embarrassment. How can President Buhari’s certificates be with the military when the military had denied it? The function of the military is to protect Nigeria’s territorial integrity not certificate safe-keeping. In any case, if President Buhari seriously believes that his qualifications are with the military why hasn’t he applied to get the certified true copies of the qualifications from the military in the last three and half years? Since Buhari is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, why hasn’t he used his powers to command the military to release to INEC his academic qualifications? More importantly, Atiku presented his qualifications to INEC. He did not allege that his academic qualifications were with the Customs. Other Presidential candidates similarly presented theirs. Where are President Buhari’s certificates?

And to think that this is a government that has declared war on corruption. Corruption goes beyond stealing of government’s money. The etymology of the words “to corrupt” from the Latin word “Corrupere” means a state of moral depravity. The lowest common denominator of acceptable character in political life has grown much lower in Nigeria in the last three and half years. Therefore we must raise the standards of behaviour of public office holders in Nigeria. The rule of law is no pious aspiration. It is the safeguard of our liberties. We need leaders who can obey the laws of the land. The Constitution of Nigeria is the supreme law of the land. Nobody is above the supreme law of the land. That none of us is above the law is the hallmark of our constitutional democracy. To erode that bedrock is to subscribe to the reign of chaos and anarchy. The constitution stipulates that a person shall be qualified for election to the office of president if the person has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent. Atiku and other Presidential candidates have presented their respective academic qualifications as required by law. Buhari should simply do the same. He should lead by example.

God created all of us and put us in this world to do noble things, to love and to cherish our fellow human beings and to obey the laws for proper ordering of society. All of us citizens, president or not, rich or poor, tall or short, stand before the judgment of God and the transcendent truths by which we hope one day to be judged. Oath-taking is a sacred act. That was why Sir Thomas More, the most brilliant lawyer of his generation and a reputable international scholar preferred death rather than take an oath in vain. Therefore truth-telling is at the heart of and soul of our justice system.