These are interesting times. Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate whose only policy plank is that he will fight against corruption without wavering, is not the straight-forward man he would have Nigerians believe. Buhari lied under oath. He perjured himself claiming his school-leaving certificate is with the military. This has now been revealed to be a tissue of lies. This is a scandal of immense proportions in an aspiring presidential candidate. Under no circumstances should it be
swept under the carpet. For this blatant perjury, Buhari must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It should also lead to his disqualification from contesting for election as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the language of Buhari’s own anti-corruption rhetoric, Nigeria must be shown to be a nation of laws and of the ruleof law. No man, no matter how highly-placed, no matter his
ethnic or political pedigree, should be shown to be above the law. For this reason, a public example must be made of Buhari.

Non-existent certificates:
Buhari has run for the presidency on three earlier
occasions. On those occasions, he did not contravene any law with regard to his non-existent certificates because there were no provisions for them. However, with the new Electoral Act, there is now a requirement for proof of credentials. But instead of providing his certificates to INEC,
as now required by law, Buhari deposed in an affidavit at a High Court in Abuja that: “All my academic qualifications documents as filled in my presidential form, President APC/001/2015, are currently with the Secretary, Military Board as of the time of presenting this affidavit.” This affidavit has turned out to be false. The military board says it does not have Buhari’s academic qualification credentials. That means Buhari committed perjury when he
swore on oath that the military has them. As a matter of fact, the military board does not even have the photocopies of Buhari’s credentials because he did not submit them when he enrolled into the Nigerian Army. Maybe Buhari expected the military to let sleeping dogs lie about this. However, the Nigerian Army released thefollowing statement which quickly gave the lie to Buhari’s affidavit:“It is a practice in the Nigerian Army 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. 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.”

Guilty of perjury:
This denial by the army that it has Buhari’s certificates has put the APC presidential candidate on the horns of a dilemma. As I said, it shows Buhari
committed perjury. In the bid to repair this damage, Buhari cobbled together a press conference during which he said the following: “I had assumed all along that all my records were in the custody of the Military Secretary of the Nigerian Army. Much to my surprise, we are now told that although a record of the result is available, there are no copies of the certificates in my personal file.” This excuse is hogwash. An experienced politician like Buhari who is running for president surely has a panoply of aides, assistants and advisers. He should know that it not acceptable for a man to swear an oath in court based on assumptions “all along.” Oaths are sworn as certification that what is said is true. Truth is not amenable to assumptions. Section 118 of the Nigerian criminal code reads: “Any person who commits perjury is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.” This is the fate that must now befall Muhammadu Buhari who must not be allowed to be above the law. Buhari stated in his affidavit that his academic qualification documents: “are currently with the Secretary, Military Board as of the time of presenting this affidavit.” However, the evidence indicates that Buhari must have known that this was not true at the time he swore on oath to this. This is because Buhari was the Military Secretary, Army Headquarters, from 1978-1979. That means Buhari should not be believed when he says: “I had assumed all along that all my records were in the custody of the Military Secretary of the Nigerian Army.” On the contrary, Buhari knows from his experience as Military Secretary that certified true copies of the credentials of military men are not kept with the military board. Nobody keeps the originals of their credentials with the organizations where they worked: only photocopies are kept there. Therefore, Buhari was just being disingenuous when he claimed his certificates were with the military.

Full story at www.theopinion.ng/muhammadu-buhari-lied-under-oath/