THE West African Examination Council (WAEC) has disagreed with the presidency over whether or not President Muhammadu Buhari applied for an attestation of his school leaving certificate.
WAEC’s Registrar, Iyi Uwadiae, was at the State House on Friday to present an attestation to Buhari following the controversy surrounding his inability to produce his school certificate, which is one of the requirements for one to run for the post of president in Nigeria.
Uwadiae was accompanied on that visit by the Head WAEC’s office in Nigeria, Olutise Adenipekun; the Head of Public Affairs, Abiodun Aduloju; and the Zonal Coordinator in charge of Abuja, Olufemi Oke.
Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, subsequently told Nigerians that Buhari did not apply for the document, but rather, WAEC, having seen the controversy being generated by the certificate saga, thought it wise to set the records straight once and for all by issuing the president an attestation of his O-level results.
In an opinion piece titled, “President Buhari, WAEC And PDP’s Toxic Air”, Shehu wrote: “The West African Examinations Council, WAEC, Friday, said the controversy concerning President Muhammadu Buhari’s school certificate is embarrassing and felt a sense of duty to produce and deliver to him a confirmation and attestation of his results, in form of a duplicate certificate.”
He reiterated this during a phone interview with The Punch saying, “The President did not apply for the documents. I made this clear in an opinion I wrote on Friday. The presentation of the documents to the President was strictly an initiative of WAEC. They said they read about the controversy on the pages of newspapers and saw the need to save the integrity of the council.”
However, the spokesman of WAEC, Damianus Ojijeogu, also in an interview with The Punch, said that there was no way the attestation could have been issued to Buhari if he did not apply for it and supplied the necessary accompanying documents.
“We would not have given him the document if he didn’t apply. It is only Buhari or a court that can ask for the results. There is no other person. So he asked for it,” Ojijeogu said.
He also corroborated what WAEC had posted on Twitter that a certificate of attestation of results does not capture the subjects where the candidate had an F9.
The WAEC Twitter handle had also listed the documents to provide while applying for an attestation of result, namely: “a police report on lost or damaged certificate, photocopy of lost or damaged certificate, two recent passport-sized photographs of the candidate, sworn affidavit for collection of attestation of results and administrative fee of N20,000.”
The clarification became necessary as Nigerians wondered why the certificate issued to Buhari had his recent photograph on it.
But while the controversy of whether or not President Buhari actually applied for a new certificate, one thing is settled, at least for now, and that is that Buhari actually sat for the West African Certificate Examination.