Certificate Scandal: PDP Accuses INEC Of Cover-Up For Buhari •Seeks His Disqualification • Buhari Can’t Administer A Complex Country Like Nigeria, Says Fayose • APC Reacts, Says Ruling Party Indicting Self THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Saturday, alleged that the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari, is not fit to contest the February 14 election for allegedly failing to present his school certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as required by law. Accusing INEC of engaging in ‘cover-up’ for Buhari, the PDP said it will put every machinery in place to get the former Head of State disqualified. This came as Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, Saturday, raised the alarm on the possibility of the collapse of Nigeria as a country after the February 14 Presidential election, saying; “head or tail, by the utterances and campaign of hate by the APC, Nigeria is definitely on the verge of chaos”, he said realities of today’s world will make it impossible for Buhari to administer a country as complex as Nigeria, unlike when he was a military dictator. Speaking to The Guardian, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC dismissed the call as signs of desperation on the part of the ruling party. “What is more, and frankly speaking, it does not appear the PDP is getting the best of advice from its members. They ought to realise that challenging Buhari’s education is a self-indictment on the party itself. The man contested election in 2003, 2007 and 2010 and under the same PDP-controlled INEC and he has repeatedly told them the same thing — go to the Army.” Governor Fayose, in a statement, Saturday, said the APC, as a party, has “dragged Nigeria to the brink of crises by branding its presidential candidate, Major General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) as candidate of the North, an Islamist, Jihadist and Sharialist, who is out to return power to the northerners and implement Islamic agenda, thereby triggering a kind of reasoning in the mindset of stakeholders in other parts of the country, especially the Niger-Delta. Fayose pointed out that, with the global economic meltdown and the utterances of the APC, the presidential election will not be palatable for the country, saying; “An average northerner who had already been told that Buhari is the candidate of Islam is preaching violence before the election. The APC as a party is saying that it will form parallel government if Buhari loses, implying that the party has admitted defeat and is ready to throw the country into chaos.” Fayose said; “The APC people are already telling Nigerians what will happen after the election if President Jonathan wins. “This campaign of hate from the APC has now triggered a kind of reasoning in the mindset of other stakeholders, especially the Niger-Delta people, who see the Goodluck Jonathan presidency as their turn, with the reality that, if Buhari wins, there will be crisis in the Niger-Delta, the area that produces the resources with which Nigeria is sustained.” According to Fayose, “Nigerians should not be carried away by Buhari ‘s latest attempt to act as agent of change because he is insensitive to Nigeria’s diversity and he is parochial, If allowed to rule, he will draw Nigeria 25 years backward because he has always been known as a religious bigot. Nigerians should not forget all his past utterances that are inimical to national progress and stability. “Historically, Buhari has failed to prove himself as being capable of ruling a complex nation like Nigeria. His narrow-mindedness will portend doom for Nigeria. He is only hungry for leadership without knowing what leadership entails. Nigerians should remember what Buhari said on Liberty FM Hausa Service Programme, on June 2, 2013. “Buhari asked the Federal Government to stop the clampdown of Boko Haram insurgents, saying Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished unlike the ‘special treatment’ given to the Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government. “ That was not the only time he spoke against measures against the dreaded Islamic sect. The Punch newspaper of June 3, 2013, also carried the headline, ‘Buhari faults crackdown on Boko Haram. Also, after the 2011 elections, Buhari was quoted to have said, “God willing, by 2015, something will happen. They either conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way. If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.” Addressing a press conference tagged “Why is INEC Involved in a Cover-up for Buhari?,” Director of Media Affairs in the PDP Presidential Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, disclosed that Buhari did not also present any certificate to INEC when he was cleared to contest the 2011 Presidential election. “It has been brought to our attention that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), either by error of omission or commission, may be engaged in acts that do not, in every material particular, support the advancement of democracy, the rule of law and the strict adherence to the letters and the spirit of electoral laws in Nigeria,” said Fani-Kayode. According to him, the inability of APC’s Buhari to present even the minimum requirement of just a leaving school certificate “questions his moral and other credentials for pursuing the position of the president of Nigeria. The current shocking 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?” The statement issued by the PDP said: “A perusal of the Nigerian constitution at section 131 unequivocally states 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, shockingly, from INEC documents displayed in all constituencies, he also did not submit anything in 2011 and never referred the electoral 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 7 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. Nigerians that have perused 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 election, could see clearly that General Buhari who claims to be a man of integrity has not been true to Nigerians. It can be seen, as indicated in section 31(6), that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a false deponent was declared 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 – this was not done. “Yet an affidavit was sworn otherwise. Curiously, he did not refer INEC to this board in 2011 in his records available for anyone who cares to see how Buhari has, in breach of the constitution of 1999, contested elections without meeting the mandatory constitutional requirement and has been treated preferentially. The question to ask INEC: is Buhari above the law of the land, or should we suspend or amend the law to accommodate him? It is common knowledge that military board like any other bodies 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 3 decades. “It must be stated that INEC erred in law by publishing the name of a candidate without receiving the personal particulars of the candidate within 7 days of receiving his nomination forms as indicated in section 31(3). This is indeed a tragedy illustrating what Nigeria has become, that an individual is 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 has now been finally rubbished and no longer respected. What is even more tragic is the fact that one or two otherwise respected Yoruba political elites are the ones in the vanguard of the promotion and defence of Buhari in this rape of the Nigerian Constitution. This is the same Buhari, who had shown disdain for the South West when he sent people to ransack the home of Pa Awolowo without a court warrant. And the same man who felt that because Lagos is in the south and would develop too fast ahead of the north, cancelled the metro-line project and went ahead to pay 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 the so-called leader of Buhari’s team claims to be from Lagos. 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 contempt and disdain for due democratic process, in a serial form since the beginning of this democratic dispensation, shows that our democracy is in trouble because it is now the rule of men and not the rule of law. This shameful development, when added to the weight of his record of civil rights abuses while in office, shows he is an incorrigible, anti-democratic character who has complete disdain for due process and the rule of law. 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.” But reacting to the controversy over Buhari’s certificate, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC’s spokesman said: “The truth about this is that the PDP is afraid of losing this election, and they would rather preferred not having this election — at least not with Buhari as our presidential candidate.” The APC spokesperson, however, contended that the PDP should be aware that it is not Buhari they embarrassing, it is the entire military establishment the PDPO is trying to humiliate. “How can you say a man that rose through the ranks to become a general in the army does not have a primary or secondary schools certificate? A man that has robbed shoulders with prominent military leaders around the world? “In any case, constitutionally, you don’t need a secondary school certificate to contest election in the country. And do you want to say a man who rose to become a general in the army did not go to school. Frankly, this is mere desperation one can liken to a drowning man desperately looking for a straw to hang on to.”
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 14:44:55 +0000
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