I was on my way to work on the morning of
Monday, January 26, 2015, when my friend, Sodiq
Alabi, sent me a Facebook message asking me
how to contact THISDAY newspapers since I am
more familiar with newspaper houses as a regular
contributor to issues in national dailies.
BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK
JAN 26, 2015



I was on my way to work on the morning of
Monday, January 26, 2015, when my friend, Sodiq
Alabi, sent me a Facebook message asking me
how to contact THISDAY newspapers since I am
more familiar with newspaper houses as a regular
contributor to issues in national dailies.
Suraj Oyewale
Sodiq included in the message a web link to an
article in THISDAY newspaper with the title,
“Cambridge University: Hausa Language Not
Offered in 1961 Exams”. I opened the article to see
these lines:
“The controversy over the secondary school
results of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
presidential candidate, General Muhammadu
Buhari, continues as the University of Cambridge
has said that Hausa Language, which is one of the
subjects listed by Buhari, was not offered in its
examinations in 1961.
“The disclosure was contained a statement from
the office of the Director of the PDP Presidential
Campaign Organisation claiming it came though an
e-mail dated Thursday, January 22, 2015 from the
institution’s Archives Delivery Service Officer,
Jacky Emerson, to one SODIQ ALABI who
requested for confirmation if the examination body
offered Hausa Language in the 1961 West African
Certificate Examination it organised.
“Emerson, in his one-sentence reply, said:
“According to the Regulations for 1961, African
Language papers, including those for Hausa, WERE
NOT included for West African School Certificate.”
“This development may have further cast doubts
on the certificate which is purported to be General
Buhari’s. He is yet to react to the assertion by the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential
Campaign Organisation that the document (the
published certificate) was forged and illegally
procured.” (Capitalizations mine)


Sodiq was shocked such falsehood was attributed
to him by Mr. Femi Fani Kayode and wanted to
contact the Editor of THISDAY for such wicked
misrepresentation. Sodiq Alabi (sodiqalabi@
hotmail.com) had written an email to Cambridge
Assessment, the brand name of University of
Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicates, on
January 22, 2015, 13.31 hours, to confirm whether
Hausa was truly offered by it in 1961
examinations. By 4.10pm same day, Jacky
Emerson (archives@cambridgeassessment.org.uk),
Archive Services Delivery officer of Cambridge
Assessment, replied thus: “Dear Sodiq Alabi,
According to the Regulations of 1961, African
Language papers, WERE SET for West Africa School
Certificate.”
A screenshot of this email exchange was shared to
us on Facebook by Sodiq and it went viral on the
internet. The email triggered other Nigerians to
send emails to Cambridge Assessment for
independent confirmation and the school came out
with a release on its website the next day. In the
release titled, “Statement in response to Nigerian
Presidential election enquiries”, the school stated,
“The organisation also confirmed that according to
the Regulations for 1961, African Language papers,
including those for Hausa WERE SET for the West
African School Certificate.” Here is the link to the
Cambridge Assessment website where this confirmation was published : http://cambridgeassessment.org.uk/news/statement-in-response-to-nigerian-presidential-election-enquiries/
Cambridge confirmation of hausa language

It is however surprising that Femi Fani-Kayode
went ahead to alter the content of Sodiq’s email in
his press statement to, “According to the
Regulations for 1961, African Language papers,
including those for Hausa, WERE NOT included for
West African School Certificate.”, and still quoted
the email as the source.
It is very unfortunate that this is the man speaking
for the President’s re-election campaign. How do
we believe every other “fact” he has quoted has
not been altered as well? It is a shame.
It is also very unfortunate that our newspapers
have gone to sleep and investigative journalism is
at its lowest ebb in Nigeria. How will Femi Fani-
Kayode not be feeding newspaper reporters with
lies when he knows how lazy some of our
journalists have become? This is not an advertorial
that does not require independent confirmation, all
THISDAY and Daily Post that reported this Fani-
Kayode’s glaring lie need to do is to seek out
Sodiq or confirm from Cambridge – which had
posted a confirmation statement on conduct of
Hausa language in 1961 WASC on its website
since January 23, two days before Fani-Kayode
came up with this lie – and ask for their side of
the story. It is particularly curious that I had, in an
earlier article sent to THISDAY which was
published in its January 25 edition, attached a
screenshot of the email from Sodiq to buttress
some other arguments, so THISDAY editors, at
least their OP-ED editor, could not have claimed
not to have seen the original content of Sodiq’s
email before Fani-Kayode’s alteration.
This is not the first time President Jonathan’s men
are forging or altering documents to demonize
anyone perceived as the President’s “enemy”. His
New Media Assistant, Reno Omokri, was also
busted in February last year, when he hid under a
pseudonym, Wendel Simlin, to send false but
damaging reports to newspapers to demonize the
then just suspended Governor Lamido Sanusi of
Central Bank. A dig into the source of the computer
used in typing the document showed it was a
certain Reno Omokri that authored it!
How lowly can people get?
http://saharareporters.com/2015/01/26/buhari%E2%80%99s-certificate-how-fani-kayode-forged-my-friend%E2%80%99s-email-suraj-oyewale

Lies Lies Lies everywhere.

Nigerian journalism industry, one of the world's weekest.

Just last week Friday, a trailer carrying container killed several people in Ketu and it was reported. But what next after reporting the incident? We move on- afterall non of our family members was involved. Shouldn't the press have gone ahead to investigate the owner of the truck, business history, how and who cleared the killer truck to ply our roads?

It is really sadening.mm