Dino Daniel Melaye assumed office as the Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in June 2015. He represents the Kogi West Senatorial District. The out-spoken senator is a member of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
His alma mater is the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he studied and graduated as a Geographer. While in the institution, Dino was a student union leader and thereafter, he led the National Association of Nigerian students (NANS).
The quintessential senator was also the Secretary General of the African Youth Council and that of the Commonwealth Youth Council at a later period. He won the African Youth Award of the Year in 2005. It was on the basis of his astonishing profile that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on Youths.
Dino Melaye has awarded scholarship to more than 30 undergraduates in his Education Empowerment Fund. In some villages, in the Kogi West Senatorial Constituency, he assisted his people with boreholes, and equally donated drugs worth several millions of naira to hospitals.
He embarked on widows’ empowerment programme in order to ease their pains after the departure of their loved husbands. In his political life, Melaye was a member of the House of Representatives. He once accused ex-President Jonathan Goodluck of running the most corrupt government in Nigeria. Melaye’s political career has been dotted with scandals, controversies and allegations.
Instances have alleged that he operates an account with a bank in the United States of America, which violates the Nigerian law, and therefore not expected of any elected and political appointees of government. The strong man is yet to deny or accept this allegation.
Dino may have claimed to acquire serial degrees from xyz Universities, but what earnestly matters is that of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. Melaye, at a time, criticized ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole on why he had to import a wife instead of marrying a Nigerian woman. In the Senate, he had threatened to beat-up Senator Oluremi Tinubu and “impregnates” her on the floor of the House. Melaye was no doubt at the peak of a high sounding rascality.
That was obviously a terrible threat which Melaye threw at Senator Oluremi, wife of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, leader of the APC. Recently, it was alleged that he did not graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In his reaction, he tenaciously claimed that he read and finished-up his geography course in ABU.
In addition, he was said to have claimed that he had other degrees from the Boston-based Ivy League Harvard University in the United States. Melaye equally claimed that he had also earned seven university degrees from Harvard’s University Kennedy School for Educational Leadership and the London School of Economics and Political Science. According to the two tertiary institutions, they did not have such name on their database.
Harvard claimed that Melaye only presented himself for a one-week professional development course in 2016.From the pros and cons of the above, it would appear that the truth is yet to surface about the academic credentials of the man of the moment. Judging from the fearless roles and robust debates being anchored by the senator on the floor of the Red Chamber, it is fair enough to accept that he has performed creditably well when compared with his contemporaries.
Fortunately for him, the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, has confirmed that Dino Daniel Melaye actually completed his course and graduated in Geography from the institution in 2000, with a third class degree.
This confirmation has only rescued the senator from the certificate scandal and mess. In order to showcase that he actually graduated from the institution, he wore a complete convocation academic gown to attend the plenary session of the Senate, few days after he was alleged to have forged his university degree.
Dino did not have to put on his convocation gown so as to prove a point. The question is: who amongst Dino’s political friends or enemies would opt to destroy him in such an embarrassing manner? Is it because the senator is too vibrant in the chamber when compared with most sleeping senators? I have a strong opinion that Melaye has probably stepped on some big toes within and outside the Senate, he is probably hated because he provides a strong backing for the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
It is therefore my view that this distinguished Senator should not be destroyed on the basis of petty jealousy. The pull-him-down (PHD) ought not to be applied to Melaye, though he may have his bad aspect in life. After all, there is nobody created by God Almighty, who is a perfection. Let Melaye continue to perform his duty to the best of his knowledge and ability. Dino, when viewed from all perspectives, is a titanic politician and senator.
END
Be the first to comment