President Buhari Certificate Scandal and the Rising Trend of Suicide

If the President does not have a certificate scandal, how come he hired thirteen high-priced Senior Advocates of Nigeria to defend him in a case brought to compel him to provide the certificate or proof that he has one, including one Kola Awodein (SAN) who gave a ‘gift’ of ₦500,000 to Justice Ademola, the judge that was handling the case against the president, at a time the case was pending before him!

A man who has no certificate scandal will simply produce the original certificate or if it is lost he will apply to the University of Cambridge International Examinations for a Certified True Copy of his results. You do not need to defend the truth with 13 SANs. The truth will defend itself.

On January 21, 2015, the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, even intervened and said that they could assist in verifying the certificate if only then Candidate Buhari would officially request them to.

On that date, WAEC’s spokesman, Mr. Yusuf Ari said, “WAEC cannot take any action except, the owner of the certificate asked us to do so. We are an independent body, therefore, we cannot be partisan on this issue.”

Would it be far easier to just ask the relevant authorities to release the documents as Mr. Ari said, than to hire thirteen SANs?

In fact, I wish the efforts by Dino Melaye’s enemies in the All Progressives Congress to verify his certificates can be applied to verifying the certificate of another powerful man in the APC. We should not treat Dino Melaye one way and President Muhammadu Buhari another way. If they think Dino Melaye is unfit to hold his senatorial seat because he did not graduate from university (which is untrue), then they should apply their logic to all political office holders no matter how high they are. If Dino must present his certificate, then others must also present their own too! What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander!

For the avoidance of doubt, the minimum educational requirement to contest a Senate seat is the equivalent of a West African Senior School Certificate Examination. There is absolutely no doubt that Dino Melaye has one. Yet so much pressure was piled on him due to his Bachelor certificate simply because he ruffled the ‘cabal’s’ feathers.

If questionable certificates are the issue, then it is not Dino we should be looking at! There is somebody who has more questions about his school certificate than Dino. Why are we turning the spotlight on Dino and pandering to President Muhammadu Buhari? Just as the Senate summoned the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University to give evidence in this matter, the Senate should likewise summon the representative of Cambridge International Examinations to answer questions about President Muhammadu Buhari’s certificate!

And the fact that elements within the APC are shining a spotlight on Dino Melaye’s certificate is   yet another example of how divided that party is.

This is even as the recent contretemps between Malam Nasir El-Rufai and some mandarins in the ‘cabal’ has shed more light on why the Buhari administration has failed to deliver the goods it promised.

Never in the history of Nigeria have we ever had a government so divided against itself.

Yet you wonder why this government cannot deliver! If the grass suffers when only two elephants fight, what do you think will happen to the grass when all the elephants are fighting simultaneously? A government that uses all its energies to fight itself will not have any energy left to fight for you!

And to make matters worse, the Buhari administration and the APC keep saying former President Jonathan ruined Nigeria for five years. Yet in those five years you had affordable food, fuel, dollars and regular salary at the federal level.

Moreover, Jonathan did not spend unspecified sums of money on his health abroad neither did he write letters to the National Assembly defending members of his cabinet caught red-handed in corruption.

Perhaps, Jonathan ruined Nigerian by reviving our previously moribund railways and making it possible for you to travel by rail from Lagos to Kano at a cost of ₦1500? Perhaps, he ruined Nigeria by building the ONLY standard-gauge modern railway that makes it possible for you to live in Kaduna and work in Abuja? In fact, I am sure Jonathan ruined President Buhari’s home state of Katsina, by building the ONLY federal university in that state. If ruining is what Jonathan did for five years, then what will you call what President Buhari has done to Nigeria in the last two years?

It is now tickety-boo in the minds of the apparatchiks of this administration to lay the blame for all their problems on Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, but there is only one small problem.

In January 2015, then Candidate  Muhammadu Buhari released a campaign ad with a picture of him that said and I quote, “If anything goes wrong, I will take responsibility and fix it. THAT IS WHAT IT MEANS TO LEAD” (emphasis President Buhari’s, not mine).

Going by the above words of President Muhammadu Buhari himself, we can see quite clearly that judging him by his own standards, the only possible verdict is that he has failed as a leader because two years into his administration, he has yet to “take responsibility and fix it” and is still blaming his predecessor.

By constantly blaming Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for the woes of his government, President Buhari is saying that a man in retirement in Otuoke has more influence over his administration than he as president does. The reality is that the penchant to blame the previous administration shows that ex-President Jonathan is more powerful in his absence from power than incumbent President Buhari is with his presence in power.

Saying anything to get elected and then breaking the promises you made after you are elected is deception and the worst form of corruption!

But in truth, what derailed the Buhari administration and the APC is that they focused all their energies on destroying Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP and the Transformation Agenda instead of concentrating on building Muhammadu Buhari, the APC and the Change Agenda.

Leaders must realise that power is like fire. You can only make progress with fire if you use it to light the way in darkness. But if you use it to burn your enemy’s house, after burning his house, the wind will spread the fire to your own house. Good leaders focus on making progress, bad leaders are fixated on revenge. You cannot combine both. You must choose one or the other and President Buhari made the wrong choice.

And the fixation of the Buhari administration on blaming Jonathan and fighting its real and perceived enemies has meant that only minimal attention is being given to the economy.  Consequently, a man who inherited the third-fastest growing economy in the world from former President Jonathan has turned Nigeria into a nation with the world’s fourth-worst performing currency!

The effect of President Buhari’s mishandling of the economy has been catastrophic on the lives of Nigerians.

And even in the Nigerian Police Force, there is a rising wave of suicide amongst officers and men which has become so prevalent that the police authorities themselves have been forced to take action.

At the beginning of the year, the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 5, Abubakar Mohammed told newsmen that he had received a mandate from the Inspector General of Police to intervene to stem the rising trend of suicide within the force. He said and I quote, “The IGP has asked us to now go close to our officers as well as the rank and file to know what their problems are because the level of suicide within the police is getting higher. Police officers are killing themselves without knowing what the problems are.”

So if those who are meant to prevent suicide have some of the highest rates of suicide within their midst, what are we to do as a nation?

I am reminded at this time of Proverbs 29:2: ‘When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked bears rule, the people mourn.’