Buhari’s certificate, ‘a dead and buried issue’

Lai Mohammed, the national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says controversies about the secondary school certificate of Muhammadu Buhari have now been laid to rest following the reported release of his statement of result by his school.

Mohammed, who was speaking on Thursday morning on Channels Television programme Sunrise Daily,  balmed the Nigerian army for allowing itself to be dragged into politics.

“For me, it is a dead issue – buried. A needless distraction. And I hope we can move forward. It is a pity that Nigerians have been entertained and distracted over a non issues completely. I’ve seen many senior advocates of Nigeria, commentators and pundits disgrace themselves here…,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the biggest casualty in this whole matter is probably the Nigerian military. What does the constitution say about qualification to run for office? It never said certificate, in the first instance. The constitution is very clear. It’s a secondary school certificate or its equivalent. It explained that it could be Grade II teachers’ certificate or primary school certificate with 10 years experience in the private or public sector. So all those who came here and were insisting on secondary school certificate were misleading the public and they were very mischievous.”

He argued that the military allowed itself to be drawn into politics, “because it is annoying and sad” that the same day Brigadier-General Olaleye was addressing that press conference, another arm of the military was sending General Buhari his entire records.

“And what is instructive here is that in the letter to Buhari they, wrote, they admitted that in the 60s, it was not their practice to keep copies of certificates of any officer. And that was one thing Olaleye refused to tell Nigerians. Rather, he went to say that there was no evidence that those who entered the army in the 60s had their certificates in their files.

“We had a meeting at the campaign council, I think it must have been on a Sunday. And we said, sir, we must put this matter to rest. And General Buhari was the first person to say it was needless controversy. He said it didn’t think it was necessary to answer them. But he said to stop the controversy, ‘I am going to ask my own chief of staff to write a letter to the chief of army staff directing the army secretary to release my records. That record was released on the 15th of January.”

Blaming the army for its role in the “distraction”, he said: “I would expect the army to know that no matter what entry qualification a person brought into the army, that he attended several courses, equivalent of diplomas as the least, was enough to tell the world that this person has the minimum qualification to contest.

“Two, why wouldn’t the military, in particular Brigader Olaleye, tell the whole story and tell the world that in the 60s, the army was not in the habit of keeping certificates of its officers?

“Thirdly, why would one branch of the army say one thing, and the other say another thing? Or didn’t Brigadier Olaleye know that at the time he was addressing the press conference that the military secretary department was dispatching the record to General Buhari?”