“Leadership is always somewhat mysterious. Leadership can be summed up in two words: intelligence and integrity; or to use two synonyms: competence and character.”
–John Brademas, US Congressman, 1984.
For almost four years, we have been trying to lay to rest a matter which in any sane society should not have lasted more than two working days – if the person involved had done the simple and honourable thing by coming clean. Even now, when, out of desperation, an attempt was made to involve an institution in the story, on the assumption that the story would come to an end, all it did was to expose all the falsehood which had characterised the issue from the first day it came up.
If you are wondering what the matter is here, let me quickly come to it. The topic is President Muhammadu Buhari’s School Certificate or lack of it. It is quite possible that no other certificate, or lack of it, has ever caught the attention of Nigerians since 1999, when one Honourable Ibrahim Salisu Buhari was elected into the Federal House of Representatives on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on fake certificates said to have been obtained from universities abroad. Buhari was hounded out of office by “progressives” in the political opposition.
As it turned out, Buhari was not the only person with phony claims regarding schools and universities attended. The Alliance for Democracy, AD, our card-carrying progressives at the time, also had their own case to answer. One of the governors elected on their ticket in 1999, falsely claimed to have attended Government College, Ibadan, and after that a university in Chicago. Instead of allowing justice to take its course, the old men of Afenifere, leaders of the AD, defended their governor to the end. It was not their finest hour. As it turned out, the fellow repaid them with ingratitude. Gani Fawehinmi spent a good part of his life to get a Supreme Court ruling on the “Progressive Governor” who is still considered a leader of “progressives” today. Nobody has taken a look at that ruling which was damaging. “Money and power make everything legitimate…”
Now, we have a President of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who many of us had stuck our necks out to support when his closest allies today were campaigning for other candidates. In 2007, Buhari was on the ballot. But, the “progressives” in the Southwest followed Atiku.
In 2011, he was again a candidate, but, the “progressives” again had a candidate, at least they had one until the Presidential election of that year. For those with short memories or too young to know, the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, was Malam Nuhu Ribadu. At the last minute, poor and gullible Ribadu’s votes in the Southwest were sold for billions to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to provide the margin of victory for Jonathan. Having collected the bribe from GEJ, it would appear absolutely reprehensible for those who sold Nigeria for a mere N17 billion in 2011 to be talking about corruption in 2011 to 2015. They made it possible.
That is a prelude to the main topic – the President’s mysterious certificate. To be candid, I had assumed that he had one all along and that the query in 2015 was an attempt by the PDP to derail what was then a needed change in governance. Now, I know better and must apologise to fellow Nigerians for the error. Now, I am not so sure. Let me quickly explain the reasons which are in many respects different from those we are all now familiar with.
According to Buhari, West African Examination Council, WAEC, and his secondary school, he sat for the examinations in 1961. I was a candidate for the same examination in 1962 at Igbobi College, Yaba – a year after Buhari allegedly (it has come to that) undertook the challenge. There was a world of difference between the 1961 and the 1962 sets. The 1961 examinations were the last to be marked abroad; ours was the first marked in West Africa. In fact, the WAEC did not exist when Buhari reportedly entered for that examination. Obviously, there is no way WAEC can attest to the result of an examination which it did not conduct. At best, all WAEC can do is to render what is on the records by the body which was responsible for the 1961 examinations.
Furthermore, in 1961 and 1962, the body conducting the examination would indicate the grade of the candidate. The three passing grades were: Grade 1, 2 and 3. By the grace of God, mine was Grade 1. Any certificate without a grade indicated meant that the candidate failed the examination. Surprisingly, the WAEC officials who went to present the “Attestation” and judging from their ages, (were probably not born in 1961 or were wetting their pants at the time) forgot to tell us what grade all those alleged scores meant in terms of the summary of results provided above. That made the entire intervention questionable.
In 1962, my Index Number was 9228/45. The document brought had no index number. While the front page of the certificates in 1961 and 1962 summarised the results, the back page of any authentic result for that era provided the explanations for the summary. Again, any true and certified copy of the result must include the two pages. Otherwise it is forgery.
The WAEC officials who partook in this charade should be ashamed of themselves. They have devalued their institution by issuing a questionable document in many respects.
If WAEC officials disgraced themselves, for whatever reasons, President Buhari behaved worse and lost more of his vaunted integrity. He and his staff, especially his Senior Special Adviser on Media, lost their heads altogether. For what was supposed to be a spontaneous action, unsolicited by the Presidency, they had organised a large welcoming party. Buhari, who claimed he did not apply for it, was obviously happy to receive the bogus document. They went to town immediately – pointing to it as the “proof” that all the conflicting stories previously offered were true after all. Drowning men grab at anything floating – even if is toilet paper. What they thought would stop the assault has now escalated their problems.
Suddenly, different stories are coming out and different results are circulating. Poor Buhari, he obviously needed a mother like mine who should have told him something about lies. Under her merciless cross-examinations, it soon became clear to me that once you tell one lie, you need several others to make it stand up – if at all it ever does. The nation had been served with bowls of falsehood about the Army withholding his certificate as if he was the only person who ever served in that part of the armed forces. When that would not silence the critics, a report was issued by the school. Finally, we landed in the hands of WAEC whose self-deceptive officials, went to Aso Rock to raise the needless scam to a higher level. To be quite candid, it was as disgraceful as it was unintelligent. Here is why.
A friend of mine (names withheld) had lost all the original copies of his certificates in a fire accident. He sat for the WAEC examinations in 1963. Seeking a teaching appointment abroad, he had proceeded to obtain replacements of his certificates. He started with his secondary school and went on to his two universities. In less than three months, he had received true certified copies of all his credentials. A second case was that of a young lady, 26, who lost her own to flood in the Niger Delta. She also got a new one within three months. One of the things most disgraceful about the controversy surrounding Buhari’s “certificate” can be posed as a question. Are we supposed to believe that someone occupying the most important office in Nigeria did not know he could apply for a replacement after all these years and save us this waste of time? Is this intelligent?
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