Buhari not qualified to contest presidential election, says PDP
NAN-H-31
Buhari
Abuja, Jan. 11, 2015 (NAN) The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said All
Progressives Congress’ (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (rtd), was not qualified to contest the forthcoming presidential
election.
The PDP said Buhari’s his inability to submit his first School
Leaving Certificate to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
was enough to disqualify him.
A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi-Fani Kayode, who is also
the Director of Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation,
stated this at a news conference on Saturday in Abuja.
He said the inability of Buhari to present the minimum requirement -
his first school leaving certificate - questioned his morals and other
credentials for pursuing his ambition.
He said the realisation brought to the fore, how and what
qualifications were used to recruit the retired General into the
military, without the minimum of a school leaving certificate.
This, he said, was especially so, when he rose to the rank of a
General and became the Head of State through a military coup that
truncated a democratically-elected government in 1983.
The former minister, however, queried INEC’s alleged involvement in a cover up with the APC presidential candidate.
He said beyond the moral burden of human rights abuses and other
sundry anti-democratic practices in Buhari`s public records, his disdain
for democratic conduct had not changed.
Fani-Kayode added that academic qualification was an issue that could
not be waived for any citizen, irrespective of his position and
religion except as provided by the constitution.
He said, ``It must be stated that INEC erred in law by publishing the
name of a candidate without receiving the personal particulars of the
candidate within seven days of receiving his nomination forms as
indicated in Section 31(3).
``This is indeed a tragedy illustrating what Nigeria has become -
that an individual is so powerful that the law has to be ignored to
accommodate him.
``Certainly, INEC’s printing of nomination forms or High Court
affidavits is in no way or by any stretch of definitions, the same as
personal particulars such as school leaving certificate,`` he said.
He said what was more tragic, was the fact that two respected western
political elites were in the vanguard of promoting and defending Buhari
`` in this rape of the Nigerian Constitution.``
He said from available records, Buhari had consistently perpetuated
``this contempt and disdain for due democratic process in a serial form
since the beginning of this democratic dispensation.``
He said the trend was an indication that the country`s democracy was
in trouble because it was now ``the rule of men and not the rule of
law``. (NAN)
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