By Iliyasu Gadu, Ilgad2009@gmail.com
As president and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s records and credentials qualifying him to the office should not be in any scintilla of doubt.
Section 131 (d) of the 1999 Constitution states clearly that “….a person shall be qualified for election to the office of the President of he has been educated to the level of School certificate or its equivalent”.
But in his heart and before God and Man, President Tinubu knows that he never attended any primary school that would qualify him to attend any secondary school. And he knows and we all have come to know that just as he did not attend any primary school, he also did not attend any secondary school.
All the records he presented purporting to attend this and that primary and secondary schools either in Ibadan or Lagos have been fakes. No genuine records exists to prove he attended the primary schools he claimed to attended in Ibadan and Aroloya in Lagos. None either in the secondary school he claimed as his Alma Mater in Ibadan. And when he shifted grounds to say he attended and passed out from a certain Government Secondary School in in Lagos in 1970, it was found out that the school in question did not come into existence until 1974.
So for all practical purposes, President Bola Tinubu does not qualify to contest of the office of the President of Nigeria let alone occupy that office as he is now doing.
In all honesty, President Tinubu should be in jail for committing perjury, forgery and falsification of documents.
That he escaped all this is due to manipulation of the Justice system in Nigeria wherein he relied on technicalities and the willing acquiescence and dubious compliance of persons that ought to as a duty point out these infractions clearly to enable justice take its rightful course on President Tinubu.
But by a grim irony, President Tinubu now occupie the highest position in the land against the law and constitution from which he derived the powers to rule the country.
This is not just an insult but a travesty of Justice in the highest form.
Think about it for a second. Here we are as a country requiring our children, wards etc to qualify with proof of genuine certificates to attend schools or be employed at a certain office. And if they do not qualify they are rejected and handed over to the police for prosecution..
Yet we have a man who has absolutely no proof whatsoever of attaining the most basic educational certificates he parades presiding over our country, signing its laws and making policies.
Take myself as an example. I have records to prove all my qualifications from primary to University level. And more than that I can confidently point out my classmates and teachers at every level of my education. When and where it is required for me to present my credentials or if any disputes them and take me to court, I do not need to rely on technicalities of the legal system to block any legal enquiries.
That Nigerians elected President Tinubu as President of the country in 2023 was due to lack of knowledge of these facts.
By virtue of this honest mistake on our part we have seen the disastrous effects of President Tinubu’s rule in following ways;
1. Desecration of the constitution in his policies eg.the declaration of state in Rivers state
2. The total disregard of the constitutional powers of the National Assembly
3. Same as with the Judiciary
4. The clear moves by the President towards destruction of opposition parties and figures through selective acts of arrests, coercion and intimidation.
As Nigerian authorities who should have stopped President Tinubu ab initio from contesting the presidency in 2023 due to his qualification issues had neglected to do so, foreign intelligence institutions who have his records in their files have “captured” our president and have moved to arm twist him to do their bidding in Nigeria.
This the man who now occupied the highest office in the land is now beholden to the manipulation of foreign interests. We can see evidence of this in President Tinubu’s economic and political/diplomatic policies and engagements. He shows scant regard and empathy to the needs of Nigerians while at same time he is seen swiftly and promptly implementing policies that favour his foreign partners.
Nigerians let us face it. For a man who once stated that he never believed in the Unity of the country he now rules over having seen the divisive trajectory he has pursued in his rule it will be a tragedy to allow him rule Nigeria beyond this first term in office. True to his word of not believing in Nigeria, President Tinubu is setting the stage for the total dismantling of the country from the vantage position of presidency he occupies presently.
As president Tinubu is not qualified to be in that office in the first place going by the constitution, in the enlightened self interest of Nigeria, the grandees of our country should prevail on him to withdraw from contesting the 2027 elections which he is fervently pulling out all stops fair and foul to hoist himself unconstitutionally and against the overwhelming wishes to Nigerians from all walks of life. All indications points out to the fact that once he is allowed to muscle his way to 2027 and beyond Nigeria and Nigerians will be all the worse for it.
That President Tinubu is Nigeria’s greatest existential danger presently is not in any doubt. He does not mean well for the country. He is bent on bringing the country to the primitive, primordial level of his thinking and mode of operations which Nigeria as a country and Nigerians as a people have long discarded. He should not be allowed to take us back to the level of mutual suspicion that we have painstakingly moved out of by our struggles and positive endeavours of integration and inclusion.
If the grandees of Nigeria fail in this imperative task,which they must not shirk by whatever contrivance or excuses then they should be prepared for the consequences from the Nigerian people.
President Tinubu is surplus to requirements in ruling Nigeria. He was not qualified to contest the exalted office of the President of Nigeria in the first place. And we have seen that in office he lacks the grace and statesmanship to rule a complex country and Nigeria. He is provincial with a very limited understanding of the complexities of the country.
President Tinubu does not rule with the presence of God in his mind and in his policies. He does not have the necessary qualities of empathy, justice, and inclusion. He is man scared witless by his sense of injustice and exclusion.
For the sake of Nigeria President Tinubu should not be allowed to contest the 2027 elections which he is hell bent on muscling his way by hook and by crook. He is not only bent on destroying the democracy we all fought for by taking us to one party rule, he is more dangerously planning to destroy the country itself. This is unacceptable and must be resisted legitimately.
Iliyasu Gadu, a former Foreign Service Officer who served at the Nigerian Missions in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK), is also a columnist with Daily Trust
