Noise Over Buhari’s Failure To Submit Certificate Is A Distraction – Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed has described the controversy over President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to present his academic qualification documents as an insult.

In the credentials the president submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enable him contest in the 2019 presidential election, he failed to submit his secondary school certificate.

“I am the above named person and the deponent of this affidavit herein. All my academic qualification documents as filled in my Presidential form, APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary of the Military Board as of the time of this affidavit,” the president said.

Buhari’s failure to submit his academic credentials has raised eyebrows among Nigerians especially because he had a similar problem when he contested in the 2015 presidential election.

However, Mohammed believes the outrage over the president’s failure to submit his certificate is a mere distraction that lacks any substance.

While speaking on Channels Television’s “Politics Today” on Sunday, October 28, 2018, he said it is a non-issue that’s already been settled.

He said, “I think we have moved beyond that. Let me quote what former President Olusegun Obasanjo said in 2015 during this saga of the President’s certificate.

“He said that it’s an insult on a man, who rose to the highest echelon in the Nigerian Army, attended the War College in the US and Staff College in Nigeria, for anyone to start asking whether he has a certificate or not. I think I want to rest it there.

“We don’t want to be distracted in an issue that’s a non-issue. Mr President served in the Nigerian Army. He has said over and over again, ‘Please go to the Nigerian Army and ask them to release my certificate.

“It’s an insult for a man who has risen to the peak of his career in the Army, has undergone so many courses everywhere; to start asking whether he has his certificate or not.”