Akin Osuntokun speaks for me- Go to the Army if you want to see my certificates. -Buhari, APC Presidential nominee. Is this the best response option (for any honest Nigerian) when your integrity is called to question? In my evaluation, Buhari has not responded the way a man of integrity should respond when his integrity is called to question. A man of integrity should not seek shield and protection in dubious legalism in preference to the observance of full disclosure. This is certainly a most bizarre manner of responding to the resolution of an issue that requires of Buhari and his party nothing more demanding than a simple request to the Army for the (speculation ending) release of the mysterious credentials. The only logical deduction from this stonewalling is that the certificates, especially the secondary school leaving certificate, do not exist. How do we reconcile this moral regression with the image of the purported puritanical crusader who had people shot for drug peddling under a retroactive decree? Who harassed, detained and humiliated moral icons like the late Dr. Tai Solarin, an asthmatic, whom he denied access to his medications; who ransacked and surrounded Awolowo’s residence with Army troops for the duration of his incumbency as military head of state; from whose gulags notable politicians like Ambrose Alli and Bisi Onabanjo emerged to die a premature death; where Ayo Ojewumi went blind and followed suit. The truth is that anyone who bothers to critically study the Buhari personae would always found his trumpet integrity suspect and the current certificate saga is only the latest in the long list of internal contradictions that demystifies him of any shred of lingering integrity myth. Aribisala wrote of him in his vanguard newspaper column “A man should know at what age he went to school, but Buhari does not seem to know. If Buhari started school at 11 and he joined the army at the age of 19 in January 1962; that means it took him only eight years to finish primary and secondary school. That is not feasible. It would appear that, instead of completing school, Buhari opted to join the army.” President Barack Obama entered all the requisite information on his eligibility to contest for the office of the American president including the fact that he was born in America. At no time did he swear to an affidavit that the original copy of his birth certificate was in the custody of any America public institution as a cover up excuse – yet he responded to the (far right) orchestrated scepticism on the true identity of his birthplace by publicly displaying the long form original copy of his birth record. The APC candidate has been contesting for a similar office since 2003 yet all he could provide is a sworn affidavit that his certificates are in the custody of his former employers – whose retrieval has become a task beyond him and his political party. And just like the eminent Obasanjo was worried years ago over the conduct of Buhari at the PTF, there is equally something ‘fishy’ about the self-willed inability of his ‘brother and colleague’ to come clean on the missing credentials. The present excuse makes no sense, absolutely no sense. Can anyone think of any earthly reason why the Army, if truly the certificates are with them, would not make this record available – if it is so requested by the bona fide owner? Then why choose the option of not doing so?
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 22:18:26 +0000