Buhari’s certificate saga: PDP accuses INEC of cover-up

PDP Presiden­tial Campaign O r g a n i s a t i o n has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) of encouraging il­legality by accepting the claim of the APC presi­dential candidate, Gen­eral Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) of possessing the minimum educational certificate to contest the exalted office of presi­dency without attaching copies of his educational certificates.

Sunday Sun checks re­vealed that General Buhari in an affidavit presented to INEC declared that his academic qualifications were with the Secretary, Military Board.

But addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, Director of Publicity of PDP Presiden­tial Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode submit­ted 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) of the Electoral Act, 2010( as amended).

The former Aviation Minis­ter said: “It has been brought to our attention that the Inde­pendent National Electoral Commission (INEC), either by error of omission or com­mission, may be engaging in acts that do not, in every mate­rial, support the advancement of democracy, the rule of law and the strict adherence to the letters and the spirit of elec­toral laws in Nigeria.

“The inability of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, General Muham­madu Buhari, to present even the minimum requirement of just a school leaving 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?

Fani- Kayode further noted that “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.

“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. Our conclusion: Buhari from the above, is not qualified to contest the 2015 presidential election.”