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When Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) released the list of presidential candidates and indicated that the APC presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.) is qualified to contest with his WASC, it must have had the approval of the Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega. Then came the allegation by Femi Fani-Kayode, on behalf of President Jonathan/Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , accusing INEC of allegedly conniving with Buhari to subvert Nigeria’s Constitution.
INEC reacted to this allegation through its Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Mr. Wale Uzzi, and its Director, Legal Services, Mr. Ibrahim Bawa, that the commission has no constitutional power to disqualify any candidate presented to it by the political parties. According to Uzzi, “In line with Section 31 of the Electoral Act, the commission has no powers to disqualify any candidate whose name has been submitted to INEC. This is the power of the law and it is expected that a political party in the calibre of the PDP should know this aspect of the provision of the law. If the PDP feels strongly about this matter, it knows what to do. It should take him to court and that is the only option. If any political party is aggrieved and is serious about it, the only option available is the court.”
Then on Wednesday, 21st January 2015, Government College, formerly Provincial Secondary School, Katsina, where Buhari graduated from in 1961 released his secondary school certificate examination results. The Cambridge printout of the result showed the results of 17 other candidates, including late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. The PDP again took on Buhari alleging that the result is fake.
City People can tell you that one thing Prof. Attahiru Jega knows for sure is that Buhari attended and graduated from Government College, formerly Provincial Secondary School, Katsina. This was confirmed in Jega’s endorsement of late Shehu Yar’Adua’s biography A Life Of Service(p.2004, 332 pages,published by Lynne Rienner Publishers)-by Jacqueline W. Farris, Mohammed Bomoi- where he stated that the book is “A refreshing account of the life and times of one of the most illustrious personalities of contemporary Nigeria…. It is a significant addition to the growing literature on Nigerian contemporary history and politics, and must reading for all categories of readers, especially the stakeholders in the Nigerian project.” At the time of this endorsement, Jega was still lecturing at the Centre for Democratic Research and Training, Bayero University Kano.
“A Life Of Service”, in one of its chapters, confirms Buhari’s Government College Katsina attendance with Shehu Yar’Adua. The lines clearly state that, “So it was that at the end of 1961, Yar’Adua, Buhari, and several other classmates joined in sitting for the army recruitment exam.” Ribadu had in the previous paragraph told Shehu Yar’Adua, “What are you planning to do with your life?’ He replied that he was just finishing secondary school and had come to Lagos to study.”
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