The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has dismissed insinuations that he does not have requisite academic qualifications to contest in the forthcoming presidential elections.

Addressing a press conference in Kano on Wednesday, Buhari said that he opted to address the press on the controversies that have trailed his eligibility as a presidential aspirant because of the genuine concern expressed by many supporters and other well-meaning Nigerians that the issue be dealt with.

He, however, dismissed the motivations behind the call for his secondary school leaving certificates as ‘sheer mischief’ while indicating that he would not have considered it an issue worth the nation’s while.

Buhari explained that he had assumed that his certificates were with the Nigerian Army and that since been told that they were not he had asked for them from the secondary school from where he finished.

“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 is why I formally requested my old school the Provincial Secondary School, Katsina [which is now known as Government College, Katsina] to make available the school’s copy of the result of the Cambridge/West African School Certificate. This will be made available to the press the moment this is available,’ he stated.

The APC presidential candidate affirmed that that he had his secondary school education in Provincial Secondary School, Katsina, and  graduated in 1961 with many prominent Nigerians, including General Shehu Yar’adua, former chief of staff at the Supreme Headquarters, and Justice Umaru Abdullahi, a former President of the Court of Appeal.

He also affirmed that he wrote the University of Cambridge/WASC Examination in 1961, giving his examination number as 8280002.

Striking out at the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Buhari remarked that the critical issues that should be in the fore-front of public discourse were not his school certificates but the challenges which have bedevilled the nation such as scandalous level of unemployment, the state of insecurity, the pervasive official corruption and government apathy towards issues other than the retention of power as the ruling party.

Read the full press release below:

Good Morning , Gentlemen of the Press. I only consented to address you this morning because of the genuine concern expressed by many supporters and other well-meaning Nigerians that the issue be addressed. Otherwise, I would have dismissed it for what it is—

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 is why I formally requested my old school the Provincial Secondary School, Katsina [which is now known as Government College, Katsina] to make available the school’s copy of the result of the Cambridge/West African School Certificate. This will be made available to the press the moment this is available.

 However, before we obtain that, let me say for the record that I attended Provincial Secondary School, Katsina. I graduated in 1961 with many prominent Nigerians, including General Shehu Yar’adua, former chief of staff at the Supreme Headquarters, and Justice Umaru Abdullahi, a former President of the Court of Appeal. We sat for the University of Cambridge/WASC Examination together in 1961, the year we graduated. My examination number was 8280002, and I passed the examination in the Second Division.

 And although the ruling party may want to wish this away, the issue in this campaign cannot be my certificate which I obtained 53 years ago.

 The issues are the scandalous level of unemployment of millions of our young people, the state of insecurity, the pervasive official corruption which has impoverished our people and the lack of concern of the government for anything other than the retention of power at all costs.

 Thank you very much.

General Muhammadu Buhari