By Andrew Akinwale, Osogbo.
It is no longer news that the WAEC certificate of the President, General Mohammadu Buhari has generated a lot of controversies in recent times but what is alarming is the way the main opposition, the People Democratic Party has taken the matter to the head.
The party argued that the president is not qualified to run for office because he has not met the minimum qualification as set by the constitution, and more importantly they claim that the various certificates presented were forged which amounts to perjury.
One of the outspoken members of the party, Femi Fani-Kayode was quoted saying “The ominous, specious and short sighted suggestion that we should overlook the fact that President Buhari does not have a WAEC certificate which automatically makes him ineligible to run for the Presidency is disingenuous, erroneous and morally indefensible. ‘I say this because our country is not a lawless jungle or a zoo. There are rules and regulations when it comes to the issue of running for public office and these rules and regulations need to be strictly adhered to and honoured by everyone, including the President”
The ranting of these hypocritical PDP stalwarts did not end there; they have now climbed the moral high horse to tell Nigerians that the President is not qualified to run for office because he did not have the requisite qualification.
But wait, I think we need to remind the PDP that the situation of their candidate for the Osun gubernatorial elections, Senator Ademola Adeleke was worse than that of President Buhari, they did not only present him, not a word of protest about morality and constitutionality was heard from their stable. Femi Fani-Kayode is from Osun State and was a member of the campaign committee for Adeleke.
Senator Ademola Adeleke did not have any certificate, his so called WAEC result had only F9 in English, he was involved in examination malpractice which is before a court of competent jurisdiction, the two testimonials he presented were forged. He had never held any public office nor had any track record of any meaningful achievement in life beyond living off his wealthy brother and touting his family name.
It is imperative that the PDP stop their acts of double standards and come to equity with clean hands, maybe then Nigerians can take them serious, except if they are saying that Osun State is less important to them than Nigeria. It is now a case of the PDP swinging the moral and constitutional pendulum to any direction that suits their selfish interest.
