PDP Presidential Campaign media
director, Femi Fani Kayode says the inability of APC presidential flag bearer,
Gen Buhari to produce his academic credentials to INEC indicates that his
entire career in the military was based on falsehood, a situation he says
brings to question the admission system into the army in the 1960s. FFK said
this today while speaking to newsmen in Abuja
“It is disingenuous for Buhari to
say that he contested previous elections and that the issue of his
qualifications did not arise. Had INEC not complied with the Electoral Act this
year, which requires that they paste the academic credentials of all the
presidential candidates, Nigerians would have remained ignorant of the fact
that Buhari has probably been submitting affidavits for the past elections. The
fact that he got away with it in 2003, 2007 and 2011 does not make it right.
The minimum that Nigerians require
from Buhari is the presentation of his secondary school certificate which
enabled him to gain admission into the Nigerian Military College in 1962 and on
which basis he became a commissioned officer of the Nigerian army. This forms
the fulcrum for the subsequent courses that he attended as he rose in the army,
including the US War College. Failure to produce that school certificate
implies that Buhari’s entire career in the Army was based on falsehood which
cannot stand. This brings to question the admission system/policy into the army
in the early 1960s. Were the rules bent for certain individuals in fulfillment
of the quota system?
Anyone that reads General Alabi
Isama’s book, which was published last year, will know that this was the case.
In fact, Alabi Isama went as far as to allege that some Nigerians were admitted
into the military academy without the necessary qualifications like school
certificate. We believe that Buhari was one of those people and this is why he
is unable to produce his certificate. The truth is that he was never qualified
for entry into the military academy in the first place and consequently he
should never have become a commissioned officer let alone a man that rose to
the rank of general. At best he ought to have remained a non-commissioned officer.
As long as he cannot produce that
secondary school certificate, we believe that he is not qualified to run for
the presidency of Nigeria. This is a matter of law and not sentiment. Buhari,
just like any other Nigerian, must be compelled to abide by the law and he must
prove his eligibility for the presidential election by simply producing his
secondary school certificate.” he said