Ololade Adeyanju/
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he and the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua were classmates and they both joined the army after the completion of their West African School Certificate Examination.
Buhari while defending the presentation of his WAEC certificate to him by the West African Examinations Council, today said he and the late Yar’Adua wrote the WASCE in 1961.
This is just as the Peoples Democratic Party described the presentation of attestation certificate and confirmation of school certificate result to Buhari by WAEC as a tragicomedy.
WAEC Registrar, Dr Iyi Uwadiae, made the presentation at the President’s mini-conference hall at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President wrote on his verified Twitter handle, @MBuhari, after the presentation:
“Today I received the attestation and confirmation of my 1961 West African School Certificate (WASC) Examination result from the Registrar of the West African Examinations Council.
“It was also an opportunity for me to thank WAEC for upholding its integrity over the years.
“As a Nigerian military officer, it would have been impossible for me to have attended the Defence Services Staff College in India in 1973, and, after that — in 1979 — the United States Army War College, had I not sat for the WASC examinations, which I did in 1961.
“The late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was my classmate. We spent close to nine years in boarding school, at primary and secondary levels.
“And from there, after our WASC, we moved to join the Army, where we had to take a military examination as one of the requirements.”
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbodiyan, told journalists in Abuja that the party did not expect the president to, “come this low”.
Ologbodiyan said: “It is a tragicomedy. We never expected Mr President to dramatically come this low because you cannot have a certificate and be calling it an attestation. What are they attesting to? We stand by our position that Mr President has no school certificate.
“it is simply a political certificate. We have said that the Buhari presidency and his handlers are always fretting at the mention of a certificate. So, they want to mislead Nigerians to say that Mr President has a school certificate.
“if Mr President has a certificate, why did he not use it in 2015 election? Why is the certificate suddenly emerging few months to the election? And have you checked the photograph that was attached to the certificate? In 1961, was it the requirement of WAEC to have a passport attached to school certificate?
“Even in our own generation, was a condition in WAEC that you must submit your passport to be attached to your certificate? They should come off it. It’s too low.
“You remember they procured Martin Luther Award presented to our president which later was discovered to be fake? This is a similar award, a procured. We are waiting for the story of its declaration as another procured document.”
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