PDP’s Phantom narrative on Buhari’s Certificate and the last born of mediocrity. By Olusola Adegbite,Esq. Before I delve into the heart of this piece, let me start by establishing that this matter is not before us, was never before us and can never be before us. Hence, the satirical title signposted above. The only attraction here is the duty to inform, the duty to correct, and the duty to defend a cause worthy of defending, which of course would take the form of an academic stroll in the park, via a forensic dissection of the matter at hand. A couple of weeks back, a few PDP hatchet-men had kick-started a new narrative that General Muhammadu Buhari does not possess the requisite qualification to contest for the Presidency of his country. What is their ground and grouse? That he did not come and prostrate before them, to show them the original copies of his School certificate, and join them in the dingy arena of discussing persons and exchanging volleys of diatribes, instead of discussing issues. Ever since then, the PDP has become obsessed with this narrative, employing the ignorance of a few willing hands to continue to help them reproduce and remix the narrative. What can we expect anyway, after all, the 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope appeared to have said it all, when he opined quite sarcastically that, “half knowledge, is a dangerous thing”. But then, amidst this raging obsession and cacophony of voices, who indeed is General Muhammadu Buhari accountable to on this matter? Verily I say, the revered General is accountable to just three (3) authorities and three (3) authorities alone, namely the Nigerian Constitution, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the people of Nigeria and no more. This tripod of authority accommodates no other, and it doesn’t matter whether such a congregation operates under the name and style Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or whatever, it is still a non-entity, and I say this with all sense of authority and legal profundity. As a matter of fact, the judicial proclamation establishing the constitutional irrelevance of the contraption called PDP, is settled in law, as established by the Court of Appeal of Nigeria in that celebrated case Attorney-General of the Federation & Ors v. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (2007), where the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, purported to have sacked the Vice-President, in a manner reminiscent of gangster politics. In a unanimous judgment delivered by the President of the Court, Hon.Justice Umaru Abdullahi (P.C.A) and concurred by Hon.Justice T.A. Salami,J.C.A, Hon.Justice O.O. Adekeye,J.C.A, Hon.Justice A. Aboki,J.C.A and Hon.Justice C.N. Uwa,J.C.A, the court in granting all of the reliefs sought by Atiku Abubakar in the lead judgement came down heavily on the then President and his party, the PDP, when the Court opined in very caustic tones that, “I agree that the Vice-President should have an undivided loyalty, but that loyalty is due to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and not, I repeat not, to Mr.President nor the Peoples Democratic Party, who in any case is a stranger to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Case closed! Not in one letter of the Nigerian Constitution is there any mention of the entity called PDP, nor is any relevance whatsoever guaranteed the group in our laws. It is simply a political association, an assembly of same bed-fellows and nothing more. Now that we have successfully deleted that which is inconsequential, it is only proper to shift our gaze to those authorities that General Buhari is indeed accountable to. The Nigerian Constitution provides in Section 131 that; “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of the 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.” This is the only section of the constitution that defines qualification for the Office of the President. Correspondingly, Section 137 of the same constitution defines the only ground of disqualification, where it provides that; “A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if – (a) subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, he has made a declaration of allegiance to such other country; or (b) he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections; or (c) under the law in any part of Nigeria, he is adjudged to be a lunatic or otherwise declared to be of unsound mind; or (d) he is under a sentence of death imposed by any competent court of law or tribunal in Nigeria or a sentence of imprisonment or fine for any offence involving dishonesty or fraud (by whatever name called) or for any other offence, imposed on him by any court or tribunal or substituted by a competent authority for any other sentence imposed on him by such a court or tribunal; or (e) within a period of less than ten years before the date of the election to the office of President he has been convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty or he has been found guilty of the contravention of the Code of Conduct; or (f) he is an undischarged bankrupt, having been adjudged or otherwise declared bankrupt under any law in force in Nigeria or any other country; or (g) being a person employed in the civil or public service of the Federation or of any State, he has not resigned, withdrawn or retired from the employment at least thirty days before the date of the election; or (h) he is a member of any secret society; or (i) he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry or an Administrative Panel of Inquiry or a Tribunal set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, a Tribunals of Inquiry Law or any other law by the Federal or State Government which indictment has been accepted by the Federal or State Government, respectively; or (j) he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.” Accordingly, it can be seen that Section 131(a)(b)(c)&(d) of the constitution, firmly establishes four (4) cardinal items namely Nigerian citizenship, the age of forty (40) years, membership of & sponsorship by a political party, and education up to the School Certificate level, as the only requirements for qualification to the office of the President. The Constitution does not expressly request the presentation of original School certificates, but the inference to do that can be drawn, given that, this of course is the only avenue of evidencing the education of any contestant up to the School certificate level. It can equally be seen that on the other side of the divide, as provided in Section 137 (1) (j), the corresponding disqualification of a candidate, apparently in direct response to the provisions of Section 131(d), can only take place where such a candidate is proved to have submitted a forged School certificate to the relevant electoral body. This is the law; let’s now relate this same law, with the facts. General Buhari has established that he is educated up to School certificate level and even beyond School Certificate level, but for the purpose of integrity, he has quoted the School certificate as his qualification for the forthcoming election. In furtherance of that claim, he has presented a Sworn Affidavit as evidence of his School Certificate qualification and has in accordance with the law, deposed in the Affidavit that his certificate and some other documents were carted away when the Military junta that succeeded his government i.e. the Ibrahim Babangida government raided his residence. Under Nigeria Law, an affidavit has been defined as a written statement of evidence, sworn to by the person making it, who is called the deponent, before a person authorized to take affidavits. In the Nigerian case of Josien Holdings Ltd & Ors v. Lornamed Ltd & Anor (1995) 1 NWLR (Pt.271), 254@265, the Supreme Court per Kutigi,J.S.C also gave judicial flavour to the legal standing of an affidavit when it defined it as, “a statement of fact which the maker or deponent swears to be true to the best of his knowledge, information or belief”. A similar definition was deployed by the Court of Appeal, Calabar Judicial Division in Edu & Ors v. Commissioner for Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development (2000) 12 NWLR (Pt.681) 316@333. The import of these judicial pronouncements is that an Affidavit as a legal document enjoys the same legal standing and is clothed with the same validity as any document, the fact of which the affidavit evidences. An affidavit is taken as evidence of the truth of the facts deposed to, and except if the courts in its discretion feels otherwise, the deponent is not required to give oral evidence of the facts therein. Based on this reasoning, the affidavit tendered by General Buhari to INEC, is not only seen, but manifestly seen in the eye of the law, as his original school certificate and he has therefore in that respect discharged the requirement of Section 131(d) of the constitution. As against this position however, if he had presented another kind of document outside this legal framework, it would have come under the hammer of the law as a forged school certificate, as provided under Section 137(1)(j). This pride of place afforded Sworn Affidavit under the law, is based on the reasoning of the law in recognising the inevitability of situations in which certain important documents evidencing certain facts may be lost or destroyed. The cure such a vacuum that may necessarily need is what the law in its wisdom has provided for Affidavit evidence, as a form of documentary evidence, under Nigerian Law of Evidence. Thus, the same way General Buhari has submitted an affidavit in lieu of his original school certificate in fulfillment of the provisions of section 131(d), he can in the same manner submit an affidavit in lieu of a birth certificate to establish that he is forty (40) years and above, in fulfillment of the provisions of section 131(b), and any other candidate can equally do so. After all the PDP Vice-Presidential candidate, Mr. Namadi Sambo, has publicly stated that his credentials all got burnt in an inferno that once raised his house and he has thus taken the other legal option of submitting Sworn affidavits to INEC. It was on the strength of this legal position, that General Buhari himself ran for the presidential elections in 2003, 2007, and 2007 without ant quarrel and I doubt if certain other contestants who he ran against as at that time, notably candidates like General Olusegun Obasanjo, won’t have also submitted a Sworn Affidavit, given the peculiar hazard of their military backgrounds. In fact, I wonder if in the 1979 Presidential elections, very respected candidates like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr.Nnamdi Azikiwe and Alhaji Shehu Shagari did submit their original School certificates and birth certificates to the then Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) and not Sworn Affidavits, given the turbulent political history of Nigeria that preceded that time and the several instances of incarceration, imprisonment and forced exile that came the way of these distinguished men. It is therefore very disgusting, how this kind of matter lacking in substance should even be whispered by anyone. That is even when INEC as a statutory agency of the state with a well fortified legal department having seasoned lawyers, did screen and certified earlier candidates as well as these current ones, as qualified for elections on this ground. It is therefore established, that the legal standing an affidavit sworn to in lieu of a lost birth certificate would enjoy is not different from that which an affidavit in lieu of a lost or destroyed School certificate would enjoy. No matter the secondary legal adornments and enticing wordings the Electoral Act may parade, it is only trite that in law, the Act in its most beautiful apparel still remains a subordinate legislation to the constitution, as captured in Section 1(3), which states that, “If any other law is inconsistent with the provision of this constitution, this constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of its inconsistency remain null and void”. The law is therefore clear and it is a settled matter in the eye of the law. In any case, where anyone feels that the facts deposed to in the Affidavit is untrue, such can only pursue the attainment of the demands of his feelings by approaching a Law Court, filing an action contesting the veracity of the facts in the Affidavit, and supporting such facts with relevant and admissible evidence. Such an individual is even at liberty to join such other bodies like the Government Provincial Secondary School, Daura where General Buhari was classmates with the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yara’dua and where he was the Senior Prefect and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), if that was the body that conducted the examination. This opportunity to approach the Court is based on the legal principle enshrined in the Latin maxim, “affirmati non neganti incumbit probatio”, meaning, “he who asserts must prove or the burden of proof is upon him who affirms”. General buhari has acquitted himself creditably in terms of the requirements of the Nigerian constitution to qualify for the Office he aspires to, anyone who asserts otherwise, must accordingly discharge that burden. Where such a character or characters abandon such a noble path, it can only remain in the realm of mischief, for such to resort to self-help, dedicating their energy to parroting a fathom narrative through stomach-infrastructure driven mouthpieces. So where lies the issue, if not pure political rascality. It is a shame that the PDP continues to embarrass itself, its candidate and sadly the country that has continued to groan under its servitude in the last Sixteen (16) years. The PDP and its gang have boasted severally that it would go to court and we dare them to, even when we know that they would not embark on such a suicide mission. Even if the PDP wants to tell a lie of this magnitude, it should at least do so intelligently. But what did we get? In their blind desperation to find an issue that they consider in their mind fitting enough to throw the country into calculated confusion, they failed woefully to articulate their argument logically and marshal their prayers before the Court of public opinion thoughtfully. It was all done in a ghastly manner, with so much thoughtlessness characteristic of the party. Sound logic presupposes that in the PDP’s thoughtless demand for the disqualification of Buhari, since their hue and cry is that given that the General has failed to submit the originals of his School certificate, he does not therefore have one, then they should have been courageous and thoughtful enough to demand in full that not only should the General be disqualified, but that he should be dismissed from the Nigerian Army, his rank withdrawn, have him arrested and charged to Court for perjury. After all, according to the PDP demonic lies, if the General never had a School certificate, that would mean that he fraudulently enrolled in the Nigerian Army, fraudulently rose to become a General and should therefore be brought under the full weight of the Law. But then, desperate people are always condemned to making the most infantile of mistakes, as their obsession would have beclouded their sense of reasoning, such that whatever bundle of lies they may have hurriedly packaged can only suffer the fate of a narrative dead on arrival. In the last Six (6) years, the PDP has consistently violated the sanctity of this land, by littering every corner of the country with hundreds of its mediocre offsprings, both those born from a stinking belly and those born of a dirty mouth, but this phantom narrative is their last born. Let it be said, that this writer has only taken his time to enjoy the ever-provoking, ever-refreshing and ever-illuminating dialectics of the law in this exposition. Beyond this academic stroll of mine however, the reality on the field is quite staggering and the people cannot but be ecstatic that CHANGE is here. Let the house rat inform the bush rat, it is now a notorious fact, that even if General Buhari is deaf and dumb, even if General Buhari is confined to the wheel chair and even if General Buhari is a stark illiterate, he remains a better option that a PhD wielding but mediocrity-studded Goodluck Jonathan walking on two legs, and for millions of us Nigerians, the revered General from Daura, come rain come shine has our vote. Olusola Adegbite,Esq. is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, NIGERIA. Olusola Adegbite,Esq. Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, NIGERIA.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 09:12:23 +0000
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