2019: Questions surge over sudden appearance of Buhari’s WAEC attestation certificate
…As PDP queries authenticity of attestation without WAEC Exam number
Since Friday’s visit to the presidency by Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, Registrar of West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and handing over of what he called attestation or duplicate copy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s missing or Army-seized certificate, observers have started to ask follow up questions.
One of the key questions posed by the opposition Peoples Democratic party (PDP) is the level of authenticity of the presented Attestation certificate when the original WAEC certificate number is not filled in and called on the INTERPOL to do the needful on WAEC officials that perpetrated the act.
Some of the key issues raise in the barrage questions coming up for the new attestation and confirmation certificate are as follows; (1), How can one sits for West African School Certificate (WASC), in 1961, and is issued attestation certificate bearing West African Senior School Certificate (WASSC), in 2018; (2), How came WAEC is able in 2018 to discover the records of the same candidate that in January 2015, it said was not a candidate in its examinations in 1961; (3), Does WAEC issues “attestation certificates” to candidates who never applied for it; (4), Did WASC offered Hausa as language in 1961 WASC; A scholar, Prof. Anthony Oha, recently made it clear that “WAEC didn’t offer Hausa language as a subject in 1961. It was introduced in 1975”, again, How did WAEC get the picture fixed to the “attestation certificate” since Buhari never applied for the certificate; (5), Having not applied or if he applied, what documentary evidence did he use to apply for attestation certificate that made the Council to change its position when the matter first came up in 2015; (6), Granted he did not apply because the certificate presentation was a surprise to him, hence the celebration, another question is who signed the back of the photograph, affixed to the certificate, to authenticate it, as is required of all candidates.
However, in his brief remarks during the certificate presentation, Dr. Uwadiae averred that “We don’t issue certificates twice but we can issue attestations or duplicate copy of the certificate.
”We also have what we refer to as confirmation; usually, universities were using this in those days when Information Technology was not in vogue.
”Whoever sat for WASC exams in whatever year, we have the records in our database, and Mr President, we have the records of the examinations you sat in 1961.
”We have the attestation of results which we issue to candidates who lost their certificates and confirmation of results,” Dr Uwadiae noted.
However, he did not at any point disclose that Mr. President applied for such certification before it was processed on his behalf.
Besides, fresh angles are still cropping up on the trending development following the recent presentation of WAEC certificate.
WAEC said recently that since August 2015, “we introduced ‘attestation of results’ that can be obtained for missing or lost certificates which will serve as replacement”.
Business Hilights gathered that requirements for Collection of Attestation are as follows’ Letter of application; Police report on lost or damaged certificate; Photocopy of lost or damaged certificate; Two recent passport-sized photos of the candidate; Sworn Affidavit for collection of Attestation of Result; & Administrative fee of N20, 000.
Another key question is whether the same President Buahri that claimed seized certificate could have produced a photocopy to complete his application?
Another set of critical questions trailing the presentation of attestation certificate to President Buhari, a report said that in 2014, the Katsina Secondary School presented a facsimile of PMB’s WASC issued by University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), with the military. It sparked controversy and Nigerians wrote UCLES to confirm if it conducted exams in northern Nigeria in 1961. It did and further confirmed that 152 candidates wrote its exams in northern Nigeria in 1961. It declined to comment on PMB’s result because of the legal bar placed by the UK Data Act.
Meanwhile, WAEC, established in 1951, didn’t conduct exams in northern Nigeria as the northern Nigerian regional government opted for exams conducted by UCLES. This arrangement continued after independence and ended shortly after the constitutional regional government was broken up.
Many Nigerians had been arguing whether WAEC is the legacy successor of UCLES. The legacy successor of UCLES is Cambridge Assessment and it was this body that issued public responses to the enquiries of Nigerians in 2014.
Recall at the time that WAEC denied ever conducting exams in the north at the time.
Except PMB sat for a different WASC, followers of the happenstance are divided as to if the attestation certificate issued to him can beat the facts already in the public place that WAEC cannot give what it did not have.
There had been rumours that President Buhari did not conclude the exams, only got recommendation letter from his principal and enrolled in the army, meaning that he may not have sat for the University of Cambridge School Certificate so that Cambridge can be asked to give him attestation certificate.
Observers say the recent move by WAEC may have been a strategic Banana peelings for his downfall as the certificate had continued to generate revelations.
THE PDP POSITION
November 4, 2018
Press Statement
PDP: Buhari’s Certificate Saga, Worst National Embarrassment
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says public demonstrations that the Presidency may have procured a forged West African Examination Council (WAEC) Certificate Attestation and Confirmation for President Muhammadu Buhari is a huge smear on our nation’s integrity and the Office of the President.
The party laments that the development has turned our nation into a laughing stock in the West African sub-region and the entire global community, as our President is now being mentioned as beneficiary of a duplicitous act.
Most appalling is that Mr. President’s handlers have succeeded in dragging a reputable institution as WAEC into public disrepute and opprobrium, as Nigerians are quick to demonstrate marks of forgery in the attestation issued by the examination body.
A check on the attestation clearly shows that it does not have the “Original Certificate Number”, the key authentication feature in all genuine attestations by WAEC. Instead, a “non-applicable” is entered, indicating that the beneficiary does not have a certificate to be attested to, thus rendering the said attestation unauthenticated, fake and of no effect.
Also, the attestation is for West African Senior School Certificate, which President Buhari couldn’t have sat for, given that the Senior School Certificate Examination was established only in the late 1980s.
Does it not smack of high level scam that the same WAEC, which, in 2015, confirmed that it does not have records of President Buhari’s certificate, now had to send officials to present Mr. President with an attestation that has no original certificate number?
Moreover, by WAEC rules, attestations are only issued in the case of missing or destroyed certificate. Why then should the exam body issue an attestation to President Buhari, whose certificate, he claimed are with the military and not missing or destroyed?
If not intended to circumvent the system and deceive Nigerians, why did President Buhari’s handlers chose to write to WAEC to issue an attestation when he, as the Commander-in-Chief, has the powers to direct the military to make available his credentials for all to see.
What the unauthenticated attestation has shown is that Mr. President does not have a WAEC certificate; we urge his handlers to humbly so admit and apologize to the nation, having exhausted all gimmicks to mislead Nigerians.
The Buhari Presidency should know that there is no way the truth can be suppressed. In fact, the current disagreement between the Presidency and WAEC over who initiated the attestation deal is also very revealing.
Finally, while the PDP urges WAEC to redeem its image by handing over all its officials involved in the deal to the INTERPOL for investigation and prosecution, it also calls on the Nigeria Police to immediately invite Mr. President’s handlers for questioning over this huge national embarrassment.
Enough is Enough!
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
