Nigerian Army Says They Don't Have Buhari's Credentials, APC React

The Nigerian Army has in an official statement said they are not in possession of the original or copies of the credentials of the presidential candidate of the APC, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig, Gen O. Laleye said this when he addressed news men at a press conference in Abuja today Jan. 20th.

Gentlemen of the Press, I am pleased to welcome everyone back from the Christmas and the 2015 New Year festivities. On behalf of the Chief of Army Staff, officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army, I wish you all a happy and more fulfilling 2015. Since our last media briefing on 31 December, 2014, some issues relating to the Nigerian Army have occurred and this briefing is holding specifically to address them.

I will begin with the Major General Muhammadu Buhari certificate controversy.

Gentlemen, let me state clearly that the Nigerian Army holds the retired senior officer in

very high esteem and respect and would not be a party to any controversy surrounding his eligibility for any political office. Suffice to state that Major General Buhari rose steadily to the enviable rank of Major General before becoming the Head of State of our dear country in December 1983.

The media hype on retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s credentials as well as the numerous requests made by individuals and corporate bodies to the Nigerian Army on this issue have necessitated that we provide the facts as contained in the retired senior officer’s service record.

Records available indicate that Major General M Buhari applied to join the military as a Form Six student of the Provincial Secondary School, Katsina on 18 Oct 61. His application was duly endorsed by the Principal of the school, who also wrote a report on him and recommended him to be suitable for military commission. It is a practice in the NA that before candidates are shortlisted for commissioning into the officers’ cadre of the Service, the Selection Board verifies the original copies of credentials that are presented.

However, there is no available record to show that this process was followed in the 1960s.

Nevertheless, the entry made on the NA Form 199A at the point of documentation after commission as an officer indicated that the former Head of State obtained the West African School Certificate (WASC) in 1961 with credits in relevant subjects: English Language, Geography, History, Health Science, Hausa and a pass in English Literature. Neither the original copy, Certified True Copy (CTC) nor statement of result of Major General M Buhari's WASC result is in his personal file.

I hope this explanation will put to rest the raging controversy surrounding the secondary school credentials of Major General Mohammed Buhari as it affects the Nigerian Army.

I will also seize this opportunity to make some observations on the recent CNN report titled 'The Battle Against Boko Haram', which was aired a few days ago. I believe we all hold the CNN in high esteem. However, CNN’s report on issues concerning kitting, equipment, medical treatment and corruption in the Nigerian Army is perhaps the best example of a media house’s show of bias, ignorance, poor journalism, unprofessionalism and handiwork of a sponsored documentary.

Let me start with kitting. It would interest you to know that there is no Army in the world where personnel do not purchase additional uniforms and kits to augment those officially issued to them. Accordingly, the Nigerian Army without fail issues uniforms and kits to its personnel periodically.

Like other armies, the NA has over the years, established ordnance shops in all its barracks and cantonments where uniforms and kits are sold at subsidized prices to its personnel from allowances already provided in their pay slips. Similarly, you will agree with me that the NA has a very functional health care delivery system in the country. There is no barrack or cantonment that does not have at least one Medical Inspection Room, Medical Reception Station or Medical Hospital.

The NA fully subscribes to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and this is functional in all its health facilities. Specifically, personnel in the North East have the best medical treatment in that the various health facilities in all the barracks and cantonments are well equipped. Notwithstanding this, personnel with extensive injuries are evacuated to the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Kaduna (44 NARHK), while others are promptly flown abroad for medical treatment. Therefore, issue of a soldier of the NA paying for treatment and drugs covered by the NHIS is absurd. The Nigerian Army’s undoubted operational gains in the North East of recent, have rubbished the claim of Boko Haram out-gunning the NA.

The CNN would do well to beam its searchlight on the atrocities of Boko Haram terrorists against innocent and defenseless Nigerians rather than the NA. Equally, the NA in the past had requested severally that any evidence of corruption in the NA should be reported to the appropriate authority. Till date, no such evidence has been forwarded but rather all we see and hear are sweeping statement of the purported corruption in the NA. In the case of Nick Robertson, his leading questions and introduction of the word ‘corruption’ to the unknown person purported to be a soldier of the NA was most unprofessional and merely justifies a paid exercise. The CNN in the past have interviewed authorised personnel of other countries’ armies and not unauthorized hooded criminals to speak to the media.

The CNN knows very well how to contact the relevant offices to clarify issues concerning the NA but chooses rather to conduct a clandestine interview in a kiosk with a faceless person and a masked individual who obviously know nothing about the NA.

Finally, the Nigerian Army wishes to state that it will remain focused on its mission to rid Nigeria of terrorism and insurgency.

To that end, it has commenced the implementation of the extensive operational, administrative and logistical decisions reached during 2014 COAS Annual Conference. In no distant future, law abiding Nigerians will begin to see very positive results in terms of security, particularly in the North East and our dear nation generally.

Before I depart, I once again seize this opportunity to reiterate the NA’s unalloyed loyalty and subordination to civil authority as presided over by His Excellency, President and Commander – in – Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR.

The Nigerian Army also wishes to emphasize its adherence to the principles and respect of human rights in the discharge of its constitutional duties. It further calls on everyone to remain vigilant and report any suspected breach of the peace to security agencies.

Thank you and God Bless.

Meanwhile The APC has reacted to the statement the military released today about Buhari's certificate. See below;

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned that those who are bent on destroying its Presidential Candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, on the basis of his certificates may end up destroying the country's military.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its National Publicity Sec. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party warned that the PDP and the Jonathan Administration are playing a dangerous game by trying to compromise the military in order to satisfy selfish political objectives, and urged the military, as a symbol of national unity, to beware of those who may be seeking to use it to achieve selfish and divise ends.

It said the statement credited to the Nigerian Army Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen. Olajide Olaleye, at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, that the Army is not in possession of Gen. Buhari's certificates, is in direct conflict with what he said on Jan. 4th 2015 on the same issue.

''In an interview with the Punch on Jan. 4th 2015, Brig.-Gen. Olaleye said: 'Every serving and retired Army officer has at least a copy of his certficates and credentials kept in the Nigerian Army while that same serving and retired officer has copies of those same certificates and credentials'.

''Is Brig.-Gen. Olaleye now saying that he did not make that statement? If he did, what has happened between then and now to make him to recant? It will be interesting to know what has transpired between then and now,'' APC said.

But more worrisome, the party said, is the statement credited to Brig.-Gen. Olaleye that there was no evidence that the certificates of all those who joined the army in the early 1960s were verified by the selection board.

''Is he now saying that all those who were commissioned into the officer cadres in the 1960s did not have their certificates verified? Does this not confirm what we said that in trying to destroy Gen. Buhari, the PDP and the Jonathan Administration will end up destroying the army as an institution? Or is it only Gen. Buhari that was commissioned into the army in the 1960s,'' it said.

The party also quoted Gen. Buhari as saying in an affidavit on 24/11/2014 that ''All my academic qualifications documents as filled in my presidential form, President APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary Military Board as at the time of this affidavit.''

''Those who are behind the latest controversy should now tell Nigerians what happened to Gen. Buhari's certificates between the time of his affidavit and now,'' it said.

APC said in any case, even if the Army now says it does not have the certificates of Gen. Buhari, he is still very qualified to run for the country's highest office, as stipulated by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The party quoted Section 131 (d) of the Constitution: ''A person shall be qualified for election to the office of President if he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent''

APC said the meaning and interpretation of ''School Certificate level or its equivalent can be found in the Constitution under part IV, Section 318. In that Section, a ''School Certificate or ot equivalent'' is defined quite succinctly thus:

(a) A Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent, Grade II Teacher's Certificate, the City and Guilds Certificate; or

(b) Education up to Secondary School Certificate Level; or

(c) Primary Six School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent.

The party said since Brig.-Gen. Olaleye has now confirmed that Gen. Buhari indeed applied to join the Army from form six, that the principal of the school he attended even attested to his suitability, and that the form he filled contained his Secondary School Certificate results, there is no scintilla of doubt about his qualification to run for president as stipulated by the Constitution.

''However, we know that the PDP and the Jonathan Administration have constituted themselves into a court of law and will like nothing more than the disqualification of our candidate so they will face no challenge in next month's election. This is wishful thinking,'' it said.

APC said the PDP and the Jonathan Administration should expend their energy on how to revive their floundering campaign instead of seeking the disqualification of its (APC) candidate.

On the contradictions in the statements credited to the Army spokesman, the party said: ''It is true that our once globally-respected military has now been made comatose by the PDP-led Federal Government, but we believe things have not reached the level where the same military will be engaging in actions that amount to self destruction, just to satisfy some political interests.

''We believe things have not reached a level where we, as a nation, will now be giving the impression that a man who rose to become a Major-General in the Nigerian Army does not have requisite qualifications?


''What really is happening in our country if some politicians have now decided to engage in an action that will amount to dragging the military into politics, dividing an institution that is a symbol of national unity, trivializing the service of those who fought to keep Nigeria one and ridiculing the same country it is supposed to be ruling?

''We have said it before and will like to repeat: Enough is enough about this distraction orchestrated by the PDP and the Jonathan Administration whose electioneering campaign for next month's polls has suffered a train wreck,'' the party said