Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the Secretary-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, has berated the Presidential candidate of the governing All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over the allegation of certificate forgery against him by the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy.
Recall that the group had given the police an ultimatum to arrest and initiate criminal prosecution against Tinubu for false academic qualifications to secure the nomination.
The Legal Adviser, Kalu Agu alleged that Ex-Governor of Lagos State supplied false information on oath in his Form EC9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said in 1999, Tinubu claimed to have attended Saint Paul Aroloya Children Home School, Ibadan between 1958 and 1964.
Agu said the candidate also claimed he attended Government College Ibadan, between 1965 and 1969, but in 2022 said he never attended primary or secondary school in his EC9 form.
Reacting, Isiguzoro in an interview with AFRIPOST in Umuahia, on Thursday, regretted at the manner the APC admitted the alleged fraudulent act and allowed Tinubu to secure its presidential ticket at the just concluded primary election held in Abuja, adding that Tinubu’s emergence in the soon-to-be conducted 2023 general election would breed mediocrities, incompetence and complete collapse of democratic institutions in Nigeria.
He also frowned at the mere excuse tendered by the APC presidential standard-bearer over school certificates and warned Nigerians against electing Tinubu in 2023, as his presidency will escalate the myriads of socio-economic and Infrastructural challenges bedevilling the country, stressing further, that days are gone wherein, the citizens elect a Nigerian President without academic certificates as experienced in the present democratic leadership under President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Ohanaeze Secretary-General, maintained that the former Lagos governor cannot offer the Nigerian electorates the desired leadership as the controversies surrounding his school certificates have also exposed the incapacitation and lack of visionary ideas of Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu to tackle the fundamental problems impeding Nigeria’s development, ranging from the economic downturn, insecurity, Infrastructural deficits and collapsed education system etc, adding that the citizenry can no longer afford to experience the current economic hardships, starvations and poverty under President Buhari again, because Tinubu is equivalent to President Buhari, whom Isiguzoro maintained, we had remained clogs in the wheels of progress of the country to deepen its current democracy.
Isiguzoro submitted that Muhammadu Buhari shall be the last President the Nigerians will elect someone without academic qualifications to occupy political leadership of the country, and further called on the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Senator Bola Tinubu to come clean on his school certificates as raised by several civil society organizations and critical stakeholders in Nigeria’s electoral process.
According to him, “even the presidential running mate, Alhaji Kabiru Masari told the world that his school certificates got missing, and even contained in the affidavits he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission and his party, the APC”.
He urged all eligible citizens of the country to reject Tinubu, reiterating that his emergence at the recently held presidential primary election conducted by the governing party in Nigeria, negated democratic principles, and a raped the justifiable and equitable rights of the southeast of the Igbo extraction to produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor in 2023.
According to the Ohanaeze chieftain, “Buhari is the last President without academic qualifications that Nigerians will elect. We vehemently condemn the inability of the national leader and presidential standard-bearer of All Progressive Congress, and ask Tinubu to come clean over the outcries and controversies trailing his primary and secondary schools certificates as the citizens would not vote in, illiterates to mount the saddle of leadership of Nigeria federation.
“Ohanaeze which is the only umbrella body of Ndigbo across the world, says we do not align with the ambition of ex-Lagos governor, and we insist that it’s the turn of the southeast Nigeria to take their shot at Nigeria’s highest seat of power (Presidency) in 2023 and address most and teething structural, economic, political and Infrastructural challenges which the nation is presently battling with, to survive. It would go a long way, particularly to heal the wounds we were inflicted on, as a result of the outcome of the Nigeria/Biafra civil war, wherein millions of Igbo souls were murdered senselessly and unavoidably”.