CERTIFICATE FORGERY: TINUBU RISKS DISQUALIFICATION
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu risks being disqualified as the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in light of the material discrepancies between the certified true copy of his Certificate obtained from Chicago State University and the clearly forged certificate he submitted alongside his FORM EC9 (Affidavit in Support of Personal Particulars) to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
As seen in the images below, it is clear like crystal that the original certificate issued by Chicago State University and the one submitted by Tinubu to INEC have the following discrepancies; they carry different dates of issuance, different university logos, different grammatical constructions, different signatures of chairman board of trustees and President of the University, and different font style. How else can forgery be defined?
It beyond settled, under our extant electoral jurisprudence, that presenting a forged certificate, under any guise, in one’s INEC FORM EC9 is a solid ground for disqualification of a candidate standing for an election in Nigeria.
For the avoidance of doubt, Section 137(1)(j) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered, provides that “no person shall be qualified for election to the office of the President if he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission”.
In my respectful view, the material discrepancies in the authentic certificate of Tinubu obtained directly from his University and the completely altered one, submitted by Tinubu to INEC, has established a clear case of certificate forgery under the Constitution and he, therefore, stands the risk of being disqualified under Section 137(1)(j) of the 1999 Constitution.
Tinubu should either honourably withdraw from the Presidential race for obvious case of certificate forgery or he waits till he gets disqualified by the courts either before (unlikely) or after the election. The issue of disqualification, under the Constitution, can be litigated either as a pre-election or post-election matter. Should he manage to win the election, which is most unlikely in light of his wide rejection by our people, political parties should approach the court for the invalidation of his election being unqualified to contest, ab initio.
That said, I know that it was not the intention of the framers of the constitution that we have a Nigerian President that rides to power under the pretext of a forged certificate. That singular fact alone endangers whatever is left of our country. Those who should run for political office must meet the qualifying requirements of law and morals. Nigeria cannot afford to have another President with a dark history of forgery.
God bless Nigeria.
Festus Ogun, Esq.
Lagos