General Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the forthcoming February 14 presidential election, on Wednesday, said he went to a secondary school, saying he has asked the school to produce his Cambridge West African School Certificate results.
Buhari, who made the clarification at a news conference in Kano, said he attended the former Provisional Secondary School, Katsina, now Government College, Katsina.
The clarification by Buhari was sequel to the assertion by Nigerian army authorities that they were not in possession of his academic certificates, especially for secondary school.
Brigadier-General Olajide Laleye, the outgoing director of army public relations, had on Tuesday addressed newsmen in Abuja, saying, “The Nigerian army does not have the original copy of his (Buhari) West African Examinations Council (WAEC) result or a certified true copy.”
The former head of state had averred in an affidavit he deposed before an Abuja High Court that all his certificates were with the secretary, Military Board, while submitting his Form 199A to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as one of the requirement to seek the office of the president.
Buhari had, when the issue of his academic qualification to support his nomination for the presidential election came up, said that his academic records were with army authorities.
At the news conference, he said “all my records were in the custody of the secretary, Nigerian army, a position I was privileged to occupy myself.
“But since I am now told that although a record of the result is available but there is no copy of the certificate in my personal file, I have formally requested my old school to make available the school copy of the result”.
According to him, I have formally applied for the issuance of my Cambridge West African School Certificate from the Provisional Secondary School, now Government College, Katsina.
Buhari said that he graduated from the school in 1961 with other prominent Nigerians, including the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, and Justice Umaru Abdullahi, the former president, Federal Court of Appeal.
“As soon as the result is ready it will be distributed to newsmen for their verification.
“My examination number is 8200002 and I passed the examination with Second Division”, he said.
He described the allegation that he did not attend a secondary school and had no certificate that qualified him for the presidential contest as “baseless”, saying that it was intended to discredit him.
“And although the ruling party may want to wish this away, the issue in this campaign cannot be my certificate, which I obtained 53 years ago. The issues are the scandalous level of unemployment of millions of our young people, the state of insecurity, the pervasive official corruption, which has impoverished our people and the lack of concern of the government for anything other than the retention of power at all costs,” he said.
