Buhari doesn’t have certificate and so what?

BY the president’s admission, listing none in his CV and not claiming any before the Tribunal vetting his re-election, it is now settled that Muhammadu Buhari, 21st century CEO of the largest black race, has no constituted (this thing again) authorisation to claim completion of any academic endeavour, though there are no doubts he ventured. With the dubious Nigerian justice system, those “glittering Cambridge assessments” his alter-ego and Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, boasted of before the Abuja Tribunal, could end up being passed for the president as the constitutionally-required proof of being educated enough to lead the nation. Under Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa watch-ship of the Court of Appeal, serving as the Tribunal, anything goes. And where the appeal would go from Zainab’s court, technicalities, riding planes and grammatical faux pas, reign supreme. Who did we offend sef?

One thing, however, stands out from the Tribunal revelations. Candidate Buhari perjured in 2015 to become president. His acquaintance of 57 years, course mate in the military and handpicked star witness, Major General Paul Tarfa, told the Tribunal on Tuesday that his set, which included Muhammadu, wasn’t asked to submit school leaving certificates to the Nigerian Army, contrary to the consistent oath claim of Buhari, as candidate in four presidential run.

Before 2015 poll, Nigerian Army also made this clarification, but gullible Nigerians thought it was dabbling into politics to save then-C-in-C. In the fury of revenge, Muhammadu flushed the top echelon of the Army after squeezing through the poll. Should he apologise to those innocent men, framed and flushed for speaking the truth and nothing but the truth?

Even WAEC is no longer willing to save the president’s face. All the nonsense about statement of result and notification of excellent passing out, has been taken back and eaten in odium. WAEC isn’t ready again to “confirm” the result of an examination it didn’t conduct. So, who will save the president?

Well, it is certain as daylight follows the night that the beggarly caricature posing as the nation’s judiciary, will never grow overnight balls, to sack a president, not when the fellow is Muhammadu, the superior bedmate of judiciary mama, and Yoruba will say, when the illegal lover of someone’s mother is older, the unfortunate son must call the predatory impostor, Daddy. When NJC sent a heartfelt appreciation to the president for ingloriously sacking its chairman and sitting CJN, Onnoghen, I stopped being hopeful of proportional relationship between the executive and the judiciary in this dispensation. I, however, have a message that should make the silent conscientious but fearful majority in the judiciary sadder; the man coming after Buhari, whoever he is, must be seeing how sweet it has been, subjugating others to fester and he will likely come in with scorpions instead of horsewhip, except the Spirit of the Most High, lives in him. Who wants democracy’s troubles of checks and balances, when you can apply Muhammadu’s blueprint and waltz through.

And the obvious perjury? The president is got immunity and a hand-picked successor will readily develop amnesia to the crime and prosecution.

While the opposition may find a cause for owambe in the president’s certificate lacuna, it is least distressing for me. Of all the constitutional impediments to being president or governor, being of infirm mind worries me most. With professors and their associates faltering big time in governance, it must by now be very clear that the fecundity required for optimal leadership is not certificate-oriented. But one can’t say same for a troubled soul and affected cognition. That is why a governor with a whiff of mental troubles and lorry-loads of degrees should be a greater concern than a poorly-educated president, with scattering syntactical prowess. Even a felon former governor should be a more tolerable godfather material if he is not into the high(ing) stuff of some godfather whose “successes” at picking governance materials and thrashing them at whim are now propelling a presidential belief.

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Tarfa claimed the president was assessed outstanding in English Language proficiency in their schooling days. Well, maybe old age has eroded that capacity with what we have of him today, and in a world of language dominance, it would be a national shame having a tabon-tabon president.

Thorough Western education is also credited with sound ability to reason. Well, this could be a bit fallacious because wisdom was evidently seen dwelling in the bosom of our stark-illiterate progenitors.

The most poignant tragedy in the land today is that even those not ruled medically-infirm in the mind, rule their fiefdoms like those needing immediate psychomotor attention. Those not engaging in sickening stealing, a medical condition known as kleptomania are evolving policies and taking deranging steps that call for serious concern about the true state of their minds. Maybe the framers of the constitution did not envisage we would ever be where we are now, when all you need to rule as mentally-unfit for public offices is the consistency in the abnormalities emanating from today’s men of power. Though I have my doubt medicine would help much in a season like this, but it won’t be a bad idea, starting with making genuine mental certification compulsory before the soapbox is mounted. Who knows, like the statistics showing over 70% of drivers on the Nigerian roads partially-blind, we may discover that nearly all power-grabbers are partially in need of immediate help.

Maybe next time, the nation would do better due diligence on whatever anyone is bringing on board to govern, even if it is still going to be a NEPA bill.