Prior to the 2011 elections, I wrote an article querying the
credentials of President Goodluck Jonathan who was being
promoted then as the first PhD president. In the piece, I
mentioned that I spent time scouring the Internet, searching for
Jonathan’s contributions to scholarship; that despite his stint
as a teacher, it was curious that there was little linking him to
the academia.
His campaign team, ironically, vigorously promoted his PhD as
a reason he deserved our vote but avoided attempts to subject
this much-vaunted qualification to inquiry. Since 2011 however,
one or two co-written academic papers with Jonathan’s name
on them have surfaced online and the man’s supporters have
distributed them with much triumphalism. What they miss is
that the contention about Jonathan’s PhD is not so much about
whether he passed through a process that culminated in the
award of the degree but why his self-expression is often
antithetical to what is expected of someone who has acquired
the highest possible educational certification. It is worse that
his degree was awarded in a discipline that is neither popular
nor understood by many Nigerians. So often, you have ignorant
people reducing a PhD in Zoology to training in taking care of
animals in the zoo! You cannot totally blame them though.
For the 2015 reelection campaign, his adulators and apple-
polishers have returned to his possession of a PhD as part of
his unique selling point. The PDP national secretary, Prof. Wale
Oladipo, earlier this week voiced this when he enjoined
Nigerians not to vote for the All Progressives Congress
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, because he is a “semi-
illiterate.” Oladipo, to make his point, even summoned the
same jaded religious tropes that the Jonathan camp –
frequently bereft of either ideas or imagination – resort to to
seduce the feeble-minded Nigerians: “God has decreed….”,
“God has decided…” bla bla bla as if that baloney will reduce
the number of generators polluting the Nigerian atmosphere.
Since Jonathan is not a fresh candidate, and he is running
against the same main contender as in 2011, why is Buhari’s
comparatively “lower” educational attainment coming up?
Nobody needs to be reminded about Buhari’s lack of university
education. If Buhari has failed to transcend his Fulani roots and
remains parochial; if his attempts at coming across as a
cosmopolitan and a pan-Nigerian candidate look cosmetic and
fail to convince even his most rabid worshipper; if his joining
Twitter feels both anachronistic and incongruous, the
certificates he did not acquire cannot – or should not – be held
responsible.
Jonathan has a PhD, yes, but when he speaks, you cringe at the
simplicity of his thoughts and wonder if he needs an interpreter
between his mind and his audience. You begin to understand
why his teachers have not publicly identified with him; why his
former students have yet to surface to share a moving
testimonial about his teaching career; and why even the
University of Port Harcourt that produced him must shudder
when he makes his famous gaffes. The only student who ever
talked about his teaching career is the woman who later
became his wife. According to Patience Jonathan, he took
interest in her because she was such a brilliant student!
I suspect the PDP is descending into this banal sophistry at this
time for two reasons: one, they are intimidated by the profile of
the APC VP candidate – Yemi Osinbajo – who happens to be a
university teacher like Jonathan but is far more distinguished.
Two, the PDP is desperate. They have run through the entire
gamut of issues they want to sell to us and are now deflecting
attention with inanities. They have, sadly, taken photoshopped
graphics from the Internet and sold them as evidence of their
transformation agenda. They scream that Jonathan built 125
Almajiri schools but grow quiet when you ask for accessible
documentation to verify their claims. They talk about
Jonathan’s transformation in the area of railways but they
themselves have yet to ditch their private jets to travel in those
20th century locomotives. They praise Jonathan’s
achievements in the area of education but their children school
abroad.
All the figures they have bandied – from the never-seen-before
achievements of the Minister of Agriculture and Natural
Resources, Akinwunmi Adesina, to that of the Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, have been disproved and
shown to be anything but real. The Jonathan administration, in
summary, is like the man’s religion itself – built on a tissue of
lies. You would think people who have such unsavoury records
of performance would slink into the night and reappear after the
election. No, they hang around and talk glibly about “semi-
illiteracy” as if that redeems their failures.
If the PDP has so much confidence in its administration’s
achievements, it should prove it by bringing out the campaign
promises of 2011 and let us put a check mark to the ones its
man has achieved. The party should tell us, in an unambiguous
language, what happened to the 7-Point Agenda of Yar’Adua/
Jonathan regime. It should explain why Boko Haram, a rag-tag
army of religion-crazed maniacs that lack the intelligence to
make the simplest battle formation, keeps defeating trained
soldiers of the Nigerian Army. It should explain why soldiers
consistently mutiny; why their wives have echoed the similar
complaints as their husbands – that their failures on the
battlefront is because that they are poorly equipped for war. It
should tell us why, after all the monies spent on security and
the extra $1bn it received, soldiers still complain they lack the
weapons they need to confront Boko Haram. It should tell us
why those soldiers should be sacrificed on the altar of their
collective impotence and pot-bellied corruption. And truthfully
tell us if the government is still searching for the Chibok girls. It
should tell us about the fuel subsidy and why Nigerians are still
paying that obnoxious money even as the price of oil is
crashing on the world market. It should tell us what became of
the various reports on corruption and why so much money has
been reported “missing” in this government and no one has
been held accountable. It should also tell us why kerosene sells
for more than N150 per litre when government claims it is
subsidising it to sell for N50/litre
If it has occurred to the party that it could possibly win the
elections, then, it should let us discuss the issues that matter to
our Nigerian lives post February 2015 elections. The time is
short and we do not have enough time to thrash these issues,
so the earlier we start, the better. And, hopefully they will let the
conversation flow without impeding it with their now overplayed
strategy of ethnic-, religious-, and now, certificate-baiting.

hahaha... now i know the reason for the desperation of the past few weeks

''I suspect the PDP is descending into this banal sophistry at this
time for two reasons: one, they are intimidated by the profile of
the APC VP candidate – Yemi Osinbajo – who happens to be a
university teacher like Jonathan but is far more distinguished.''

GEJ and PDP are intimidated by Osinbajo's academic qualifications and achievements

But why will PEJ be GEJ's only known student and probably his most 'brilliant'? was he only a home lesson teacher?

theV0ice:
hahaha... now i know the reason for the desperation of the past few weeks

''I suspect the PDP is descending into this banal sophistry at this
time for two reasons: one, they are intimidated by the profile of
the APC VP candidate – Yemi Osinbajo – who happens to be a
university teacher like Jonathan but is far more distinguished.''

GEJ and PDP are intimidated by Osinbajo's academic qualifications and achievements

But why will PEJ be GEJ's only known student and probably his most 'brilliant'? was he only a home lesson teacher?

That's what we don't know yet o #Madam PEJ is GEJ only student