Tuesday, October 02, 2018 /06:58PM /OpEd by Reuben Abati
The
number of persons involved in certificate scandals under the Buhari
administration may speak to something far deeper in our society, even beyond
the administration, but it is to say the least, disgraceful and embarrassing.
Ordinarily considered some of the best educated black persons in the world -
one US report indicates that Nigerians are among the most educated immigrants
in the United States, vertically and horizontally - it is now shameful that
Nigerians today are also ironically poster-characters for fake certificates,
419 qualifications, and dubious academic affiliations.
This
whole saga started, this time, with the President himself whose school
certificate qualification became an issue of much speculation and histrionics.
The Constitution requires any office-seeker in Nigeria to have the minimum of a
secondary education. You are required to go to school till about the age of 16:
extremely small education in my reckoning but good enough to enable you read
and write and be able to sign documents.
The
focus on this President’s educational qualification, and the opaqueness that
grew around the matter ended up motivating nosey-parkers to begin to look for
certificates in the corridors of power, including certificates of participation
in the National Youth Service Corps. One of these days, I wouldn’t be surprised
if investigators begin to turn their searchlights on birth certificates! In the
past, we had the Chicago scandal, we also had the Toronto scandal, today we are
a country of too many “Chicagos” and “Torontos.”
You
will recall that Ms. Kemi Adeosun was accused of dodging the compulsory
one-year national service for higher institution graduates. She was pushed to
resign her exalted office as Minister of Finance, but her case served the
country well in the long run: it brought up issues of citizenship and the value
or non-value of the NYSC. Ms. Adeosun would probably be remembered more in
Nigerian history for the manner in which her example generated a conversation
around the rights and citizenship of Nigerians in diaspora, their relationship
with their ancestral country, the character of supposedly “trusted associates”,
and the long-term relevance of the National Service scheme in a country where
there is very little service but a greater obsession with self, entitlement and
gratification.
Ms.
Adeosun has since moved on and Nigerians have left her alone. But there is
still the unresolved matter of Okoi Obono-Obla, the President’s Special Adviser
on Corruption. He has been accused by a Committee of the House of Representatives
of parading a doctored school certificate result. They argue that the School
Certificate Result that he holds does not belong to him but to a dead cousin.
And that he used that certificate to gain admission to the University of Jos
where he studied law. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the
examining authority that should know the truth has also allegedly said that
there is something fishy about the certificate in question. In Okoi
Obono-Obla’s case, I am a bit confused.
As
Chairman, Editorial Board and Editorial Page Editor of The Guardian newspapers
for more than 10 years, I published opinion pieces, letters to the editor and
essays from a certain Okoi Obono-Obla which were always very well written,
well-made pieces, and fit for publication. Not one piece from that Okoi
Obono-Obla’s sounded like something written by a man who needed to dodge
a WAEC examination. Obono-Obla’s response to the current allegations is that
the matter is already in court and that this is a case of “corruption fighting
back” but whatever the truth is, and it is the duty of the court to determine
that, the Obono-Obla case makes the Buhari government look really bad. It
reinforces a growing narrative that there are too many persons in high places
who cannot defend what they claim they are, under a government that flies
integrity as a proof of innocence and virginity.
And
there is Adebayo Shittu, the voluble, bearded Minister of Communications – the
guy didn’t participate in the National Youth Service Corps. Ms Adeosun’s
defenders talked about citizenship and her betrayal by “trusted associates”.
They put up a spirited defence for her. In Adebayo Shittu’s case, the guy
has the stupid effrontery to come forward to say that he did not enroll for the
NYSC because he thought his membership of the Oyo State House of Assembly was
the equivalent of a National service. I have heard a lot of stupid comments in
my short life-time but this certainly must be the worst of them all.
To
worsen matters further, Shittu is said to be a lawyer, duly called to the
Nigerian Bar. And he talks like that? Too many of this type are all over the
place defending illegalities, and yet they would be the first to tell you I am
a Barrister even when every year at Call to Bar ceremonies, fresh wigs are
advised not to go about threatening people with the redundant title of
Barrister this and Barrister that.
The
APC has had cause to disqualify Adebayo Shittu from participating in the APC
Governorship primaries in Oyo State. Good for him. He has also been quoted as
saying he is now ready to enroll for the NYSC. As the Yoruba will say: “Igbayi
laaro”. In pidgin: “na now him just dey realize say NYSC important?” In street
talk: “commot there, no dey talk nonsense”. The NYSC Act is very clear. It
needs no golden interpretation. Shittu has committed a felony. He has convicted
himself with his own mouth. He has raised further questions about the
administration’s commitment to the rule of law.
There
is also the case of the Governor of Adamawa state, Jibrilla Bindow, who has
been accused of forging his school certificate qualification. Bindow is seeking
a second term as Governor of Adamawa state. His opponents, principally named
Global Integrity and Crusade Network (GICN) have now chosen to tell us that the
man did not even complete secondary school. They have given WAEC an ultimatum
to tell Nigerians whether or not Bindow who had served previously as Senator of
the Federal Republic, has a Secondary School Certificate in accordance with the
laws of the land. They claim he has not been able to make any difference as
Governor because he is a secondary school drop-out.
But
surely, it is not only the ruling All Progressives Congress that has this
problem. Senator Ademola Adeleke, the Governor the people of Osun state
wanted but the APC blocked, also obviously has issues with his academic
qualifications. They say the man did not have a School Certificate. WAEC
confirmed he had one. Then the Police accused him of having sat for the 2017
National Examination Council Examination (NECO) via a proxy. What we remember
though is that he allegedly had an F9 in the School Certificate Examination. He
didn’t deny that and yet he wanted to be Governor! Under President Buhari,
Nigeria is at the level of F9 and fake certificates.
Let
me nail this down. These stories, either from the APC or PDP or any other side
do not help Nigeria’s image. I imagine that if any Nigerian were to go anywhere
in the world today, and present the best, most impressive credentials, the relevant
authorities would still go behind to double-check. Many of our students today
who go abroad for additional educational opportunities are routinely asked to
take extra tests that candidates from other countries are not required to take.
When the rest of the world hears that Nigerian political leaders, the same
persons who are supposed to take serious decisions about national, bilateral
and multilateral relations are a bunch of semi-illiterates, draft dodgers, and
uneducated semi-illiterates, they are bound to look at the rest of us as
imbeciles. Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh and the
United States have some of the best educated persons in the world. Every
serious country promotes its best people.
In
Nigeria we promote the worst of the pack in a country where there are more than
enough people with credible qualifications. We don’t’ recognize such people.
Instead we send to the international community, people who could not pass
School certificate, the equivalent of the IGSCE in the United Kingdom, school
drop-outs who have no clue about important governance issues – these are the
ones we send out to go engage better educated and more enlightened persons.
In
the end, the Buhari government prefers to take its time to respond to this
issue that has become a major issue of his time as President. It may be
said that President Buhari is a bad judge of character – he should never
have associated with or recruited all these characters giving him problems in
the first place, but how about the institutions whose job it is to screen
political appointees and every other person in the public sphere? Senator
Abiola Ajimobi has been Governor of Oyo State for two terms but I understand
someone is also saying he too, does not have an NYSC certificate. If he has an
NYSC certificate, he should display it right-away and put his accusers to
shame.
I
really don’t understand what is going on. What is the meaning of this
certificate problem in a country where there are people who can put every needed
certificate on the table and yet they are the ones who are unemployed and the
one who have issues are the ones running government? The relevant security
agencies continue to disappoint the country and a lot of political crises are
generated in part because the security agencies are politically compromised.
Nobody can aspire to public office in Nigeria except they have been screened by
the security agencies. What happened to that process under President Buhari’s
watch?
For,
the forgery of school certificates is a form of corruption. I am saying that
certificate scandal is the worst form of corruption. Right now, our political
representatives are no longer respected abroad Who wants to talk to
a diplomat whose basic education is uncertain? Who wants to take a country
seriously where a state Governor says “We works” instead of “We worked”.
And you have a President who is very comfortable with all of
these?
President
Buhari needs to clean up his cabinet, do a complete audit. He should
appeal to all the men who have certificate problems in his cabinet to do him a
favour and ship out voluntarily. I won’t be surprised if the same investigative
journalists who ousted the cases mentioned have even more scandalous examples
in their file and may release bigger blows in the day ahead. Who are these
people? Common certificate they don’t even have and they want to rule
Nigeria! The diplomats serving in Nigeria must be laughing at us in the
dispatches they send home.
The
President has a responsibility to act on all of these cases, to determine the
credibility of these allegations and to prove that his government is sincere
about the anti-corruption campaign across all genres.
Related News
2. #NigeriaAt58:President
Buhari commits to free and fair electoral process
3. Lagos APC Guber
Primaries: Tinubu issues statement
4. EFCC Launches
Offensive Against Election Fraud, Tracks Campaign Financing by Parties
5. Nigeria’s
Self-Styled Macron Wants To Win Power By Ending Corruption
7. National
Assembly to Resume October 9th, 2018
8. #OsunDecides2018:
INEC Declares Guber Elections Inconclusive, Fixes September 27 for Rerun
9. #OsunDecides2018:
Focus on the Economy
10. Nigeria
Challenges HSBC Report On President Buhari And The Economy
11. #Elections2019:
House Speaker Dogara to consult supporters on defection to PDP
12. President Buhari
appoints Yusuf Bichi as DG DSS
13. Card Reader Not
Included in Electoral (amendment) Bill Transmitted on August 3, 2018