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.”
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