Names of Prominent Nigerians With Certificate Scandals

Like sea creatures in ocean’s depth, several
prominent Nigerians have been grappling not to
sink in the murky waters of certificate scandals,
Punch's Bayo Akinloye writes.
“I’ll never resign!” his gentle voice echoed
through his expansive office, as his body shook
like a man being led inevitably to the gallows as
he addressed journalists in a press conference.
The grandeur of his office as the Speaker, House
of Representatives, was unmistakable with his
retinue of security details and aides.
There were five rooms adjoining and leading to
his expansive official personal office: the security
details, receptionists, private secretaries, aides,
chief of staff and aid-de-camp.
As the Number Four citizen of Nigeria, he could
wield enormous power and would do anything to
remain in power – as he had already lied his
way to become the fourth most powerful person
in the most populous black nation on earth.
The Ahmadu Bello University connection
Erstwhile Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Salisu Buhari’s way to the
lower chamber of the National Assembly was
fraught with forgeries. To become a federal
lawmaker, he claimed he was 36 years old as of
1999, though he was born in 1970.
The minimum required age to be a lawmaker in
the House, according to the 1999 Nigerian
Constitution, is 30.
He also claimed to have attended University of
Toronto in Canada and graduated with a degree
in Business Administration, but the university
denied he was ever a student of the institution.
And for falsifying his credentials to gain
admission into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,
Kaduna State, he was kicked out and never had
the opportunity to participate in the one-year
National Youth Service Corps exercise.
In 2000, the lid was fully blown open and the
defiant Buhari broke down in tears of confession
before the nation, owning up to allegations of
forgery and perjury.
“I apologise to you. I apologise to the nation. I
apologise to my family and friends for all the
distress I have caused them. I was misled in
error by my zeal to serve the nation. I hope the
nation will forgive me and give me the
opportunity to serve again,” he begged.
Dino Melaye
To date, Salisu Buhari has remained the poster
boy of certificate scandal in the country’s
political space, with the latest accusation
levelled against a one-time anti-corruption
activist and now senator, Dino Melaye.
Forty-three-year-old Melaye, bald-headed with a
well-tended moustache to boot, was accused by
an online news medium, SaharaReporters of not
graduating from the same ABU. One of his
colleagues, Senator Ali Ndume, called for the
upper legislative chamber to probe him for
forgery and perjury.
“SaharaReporters, please sue me and ABU if it is
true that I did not graduate from Zaria. Tell (the
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission) Magu (Ibrahim) to arrest
and prosecute me. I’m presently a student of
ABU pursuing my seventh degree,” Melaye
retorted.
However, Harvard University and the London
School of Economics and Political Science, which
Melaye had reportedly claimed to have
graduated from, told SaharaReporters that
Melaye did not study degree courses with them,
and hence, couldn’t have graduated.
As it is customary, the Senate has referred
Melaye’s case to the Committee on Ethics,
Privileges and Public Petitions. The committee’s
report is expected to come in towards the end of
April.
Just a fortnight ago, the firebrand politician was
breathing fire and brimstone, hankering that
Magu’s confirmation should be dismissed
because he did not pass the Senate’s “integrity
test.”
But the spokesman for northern delegates in the
last National Conference, Anthony Sani, does not
think it is a problem peculiar to politically
exposed persons.
“Certificate scandal is not an exclusive preserve
of politicians but manifestations of corrupt
practices that have distorted our sense of what
is right and what is evil in the polity. Consider
the prevalence of exam malpractices, among our
youths in order to have realistic appreciation of
the unsavoury situation,” he told Punch.
A scandal that rocks even presidents
In an animated manner, Sani dismissed an
allegation that President Muhammadu Buhari did
not have a certificate to show that he finished
his secondary school education. He had told
Punch in 2015 that it was an insult to say the
man – a general – that would soon be the
nation’s president did not have such a
certificate.
Even though the respected former Chief of
Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.),
in defence of President Buhari, had expressed
disdain for those who accused the President of
not having the Cambridge West African School
Certificate Ordinary Level in 1961 as he claimed,
the allegation left much a chink in the armour of
Buhari than any other issue as the 73-year-old
has yet to present the certificate.
Few months to the 2015 presidential poll, Buhari
defended himself, saying that he attended the
Provincial Secondary School, Katsina, with many
prominent Nigerians, including the late General
Shehu Yar’Adua.
Certain of not forging his certificate, Buhari said
he sat for the University of Cambridge/WASSCE
Examination in 1961, with the examination
number 8280002, which he reportedly passed in
the Second Division.
He also submitted an affidavit to the
Independent National Electoral Commission that
all his academic credentials were with the
Military Board. However, the army issued a
curious disclaimer that it did not have the
original, certified true copy or statement of
results of the retired general.
In the ensuing claim and counterclaim, one
Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe instituted a lawsuit
asking the court to disqualify Buhari from
running for president because he did not have
the minimum qualification required to contest for
the presidential election.
There was raucous noise across the nation as
opponents and supporters awaited the court’s
pronouncement but before the case could be
decided, the former head of state won the
election and was sworn in as a democratically
elected president.
On June 16, 2016, a Federal High Court in Abuja
adjourned the suit indefinitely seemingly putting
an end to a nail-biting controversy that may be
forever associated with a president who built his
claim to the presidency on the platform of
integrity.
Goodluck Jonathan But before Buhari was
subjected to this scrutiny, former President
Goodluck Jonathan had also been caught
momentarily in the web of a certificate scandal.
Like a salvo, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo
hauled a bombshell that must have unsettled
and rattled the leadership of the PDP and others
who revered Jonathan and never ceased to laud
him as the first doctoral degree holder to lead
Nigeria.
Obasanjo had said, “Even Jonathan did not
finish his PhD course but when it was presented,
we stated that it does not matter but many
people did not know because it was a PDP
thing.”
Coming from arguably Nigeria’s most respected
leader and global statesman, the accusation was
weighty and left the sitting president’s integrity
and image in a precarious state.
Jonathan reportedly holds a BSc in Zoology with
second class honours; an MSc in Hydrobiology
and Fisheries Biology; and a PhD in Zoology, all
from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers
State.
His supporters felt Obasanjo was making
desperate efforts to discredit the then president
ahead of the 2015 presidential poll to ensure he
would not win the election.
In a response to an inquiry by Punch, the
university had dismissed such accusation as
having “neither legs nor grounds to stand on.”
The institution, through its Deputy Registrar,
William Wodi, had said concerning information
on Jonathan’s qualifications, “We have
absolutely nothing to hide as an institution that
has a statutory mandate to advance the
frontiers of knowledge.”
Yet, when civil society organisation, Institute of
Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, requested
for Jonathan’s academic records through the
Freedom of Information law, the university
replied, “The Management of the university has
carefully considered your request vis-a-vis the
FOI Act.
“It is my instruction to inform you that your
request does not come within the relevant
provisions of the FOI Act for its practicability or
for the university to provide such details as
requested. Details of the PhD Degree of
President Goodluck Jonathan in the University of
Port Harcourt cannot therefore be made
available to you.”
That put paid to Obasanjo’s accusation.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu
Since 1999, only few men have bestridden
Nigeria’s political landscape like a colossus as
the current National Leader of the All
Progressives Congress. As the ultimate
kingmaker, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has
anointed governors and frustrated the ambitions
of those who would not kowtow to his political
vision.
A formidable political fighter and strategist,
loved by many and hated by as much, the
allegation that he forged a certificate may
always dog the APC leader.
In 1999, one Dr. Waliu Balogun had written a
petition against Tinubu that he did not attend
Chicago State University as indicated in his INEC
form 001 filled when he contested the Lagos
State governorship poll and that he also lied in
the affidavit he attached to the INEC form, in
which he declared that he lost his university
degree certificate while he was in exile between
1994 and 1998.
Balogun’s litany of complaints included
accusations that Tinubu’s claim of attending
Government College, Ibadan, was false; and that
he lied in the INEC form about his age – that he
was born in 1952 as against the 1954 he filled
in the documents at the Chicago university.
Tinubu was also accused of not participating in
the compulsory one-year NYSC exercise.
Generating a lot of furore, Tinubu was forced to
present the original copy of his certificate while
he dismissed the allegations as “baseless,
wicked and unfortunate.”
Notwithstanding, that year, a firebrand lawyer
and human rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi, went
to court to compel the Inspector General of
Police to investigate Tinubu. Fawehinmi did not
live long enough to finish the lawsuit.
In 2013, however, one Dr. Dominic Adegbola filed
an unsuccessful application seeking to reopen
the suit.
Ayodele Fayose
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, means
many things to many people. Some hail him as
a courageous politician daring the APC–led
Federal Government. Others see him as an
impostor using populism to take advantage of
the Ekiti people – this is partly based on a 2013
certificate scandal that he was embroiled in.
Flamboyant Fayose had claimed that he
attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan and bagged a
Higher National Diploma certificate but he was
left in a state of disbelief when the institution
issued a disclaimer that he was never a student
of the polytechnic and that the certificate he
claimed as his actually belonged to a different
person.
Not a few people asked for his prosecution just
as Fayose prepared for the governorship
election.
In an intriguing volte-face, the state polytechnic
ate their words, admitting that Fayose was a
graduate of the school and he eventually won
the election in October 2014 on the platform of
the Peoples Democratic Party.
Gabriel Suswam
With chubby cheeks and usually wearing a smile,
former two-time Governor of Benue State,
Gabriel Suswam was accused of forging his
West African School Certificate which he used to
gain admission to the University of Lagos to
study Law.
Ahead of the 2007 governorship poll in Benue,
Suswam submitted the certificate to INEC as
prerequisite to contest in the election.
No sooner had he done that than it was alleged
that his original certificate showed that he
passed five subjects, excluding Mathematics and
English, which are mandatory for admission into
a Nigerian university.
His accusers also accused Suswam of writing to
WAEC in 2005 claiming that his certificate was
missing, attaching photocopies of the missing
certificate, a police report and an affidavit of loss
of certificate to the letter.
A PDP aspirant and opponent of Suswam, Terver
Kakih, took the matter to court claiming that
WAEC issued the accused a new certificate that
indicated he passed English and Mathematics,
raising suspicions it might have been forged.
The case literally dragged from that point until
Suswam completed his tenure as governor with
the examination body standing by the certificate
it issued Suswam.
The lawsuit moved from the High Court to the
Supreme Court and in 2014, the apex court
cleared Suswam of any wrongdoing.
Adams Oshiomhole
For many a Nigerian governor, unease lies the
head that wears the crown. Like his colleagues
mentioned earlier, former Edo State Governor,
Adams Oshiomhole, also walked the often tight
rope of a forgery scandal in 2012 when Major
General Charles Airhiavbere (retd.) challenged
the authenticity of his academic records.
Airhiavbere, who was contesting governorship on
the platform of PDP, had said Oshiomhole’s
primary and school certificates were forged.
In a case that went before elections tribunal,
Airhiavbere argued that all certificates presented
to INEC by Oshiomhole were not authentic.
According to him, Oshiomhole attended Iyamoh
Primary School, Iyamoh, from 1957 to 1962,
with Edo State Ministry of Education’s record
indicating that the school was founded in 1963,
a year after the then governor said he graduated
from it; and that his name was not listed among
graduands of Blessed Martins Secondary Modern
School, which Oshiomhole was said to have
graduated from in 1965, among other issues.
Though Airhiavbere lost his case at the tribunal,
he got a reprieve at the Court of Appeal, as the
court ordered that a new tribunal should be
convened to revisit the petition he had earlier
filed.
As time fled past, what used to be a legal tussle
between Oshiomhole and the retired general
turned into a case of camaraderie because in
2015 during the former’s seventh anniversary as
governor, Airhiavbere praised him, saying, “The
platform created by Oshiomhole is strong and
tenable and one upon which the APC as a party
should allow all aspirants to contest to fly the
party’s flag in the 2016 governorship election.
The governor’s crowd of supporters and the
relevance of the party in the state have been
deep-rooted even in opposition, before that
election.”
Godwin Obaseki
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, succeeded
Oshiomhole in running the affairs of the state.
He is also like his predecessor in another sense.
Obaseki’s profile indicates that he attended the
Columbia University and Pace University in New
York, US and has an MBA in Finance and
International Business.
Like his forerunner, Obaseki was accused of
using a doctored certificate to seek admission
into the university.
Chairman of the PDP in Edo, Dan Orbih, had said
about him, “He claimed he entered university the
year he left secondary school. How could he
have gained admission with such result? The
result was not even good enough for any form of
preliminary studies.
“This can only mean that Godwin Obaseki forged
certificates to gain admission to the university.
It is obvious that the man has no academic
qualifications as he had only three credits.”
In response, Obaseki produced an affidavit from
an Abuja High Court which stated that all of his
educational certificates, including his NYSC
discharge certificate were missing and in their
stead he produced photocopies of the original
documents.
The claim was dismissed as “flimsy” and
“unconvincing” by the PDP.
Staunchly defending himself, Obaseki said, “The
truth is that I have not had any reason to look
for them in the last 25 years. I know that I kept
them somewhere in a safe box and I had
photocopies. When I needed them for the
exercise, I could not find them. So, I swore to an
affidavit that I cannot find the originals.
“So when the whole controversy started raging,
my cousin called me from New York and said,
‘But your originals are here.’ I said, ‘Please,
send them to me now’.”
For Obaseki, all is well that ends well.
Evan(s) Enwerem
Evan(s) Enwerem was the Senate President on
June 3, 1999 but he did not hold the position for
long as he was embroiled in a scandal involving
forgery and perjury.
He was accused by colleagues in the Senate,
said to be led by Senator Chuba Okadigbo (who
eventually replaced him and was also booted
out in a similar fashion), of using a fake name
and falsifying academic records.
The allegation against Enwerem was that he
falsified his name and a debate ensued as to
whether Enwerem’s real name was Evan or
Evans.
Eventually, he was removed as the senate
president on November 18, 1999 but remained
as a senator until 2003 and was never
prosecuted. He died in 2007.
Stella Oduah
Aged 55, according to Senator Stella Oduah’s
profile on the National Assembly’s page, she
reportedly went to St. John’s Primary School
and graduated in 1974 with a First School
Leaving Certificate; Zixton Secondary School and
graduated in 1978 with West African School
Certificate; and St. Paul College and finished in
1982 with no certificate received indicated.
A former Minister of Aviation, Oduah is not one
to be frightened in times of scandals – she was
accused of being among the privileged few
women who influenced the decisions of ex-
president Jonathan and that she allegedly
bought bulletproof automobiles for personal use
with government money.
According to information gleaned from online
sources, Oduah claimed she attended St. Paul’s
College, Lawrenceville in Virginia, US, from 1978
to 1982, obtaining a first degree in Accounting
and a master’s degree in 1983. But St. Paul’s
College did not seem to have run a master’s
programme.
On Wikipedia, the senator was also credited with
having received an honorary doctoral degree in
Business Administration from Pacific Christian
University based in Glendale.
That claim too said was said to be
preposterous. SaharaReporters had, through a
story it published, accused Oduah of falsely
claiming to attend the academic institutions.
According to the online publication, the then
President of St. Paul’s, Dr. Claud Flythe, refused
to deny or confirm the senator’s claim when
contacted.
It added that efforts to verify Oduah’s academic
claim was fruitless as the institution’s Office of
Alumni Affairs said the college had been closed
since June 2013 due to loss of its accreditation.
In spite of these weighty allegations, the
delectable senator has kept mum. The citation of
the degree has however been yanked off from
her Wikipedia page.
Andy Uba
According to his photo-less profile on the
National Assembly’s official website, Andy Uba
is 59 years old; he went to St James Primary
School, Uga Aguata, Anambra State and Union
Secondary School, Enugu State. SUNDAY
PUNCH observed that the space for dates he
attended those schools was vacant. He also
claimed in the profile that he went to California
State University, Los Angeles in 2013 with
qualifications that read, “Ba, p.hd, dpa award.”
His profile like many other federal lawmakers did
not say much.
In 2006, there were claims that Andy Uba did
not have a first degree in Geology which he said
he obtained from Concordia University, Canada,
in 1984.
His master’s degree from California State
University was also said to be doubtful; so was
his claim to have acquired a doctoral degree
from Buxton University in the United Kingdom, as
the institution was said to run unaccredited
online degrees with an address in Portugal,
which was not recognised by the United
Kingdom.
Ikechukwu Obiorah had made these allegations
in a bid to overturn Uba’s election as the
senator representing Anambra South Senatorial
District in 2011, asking the election tribunal to
invalidate his election and order a rerun poll.
While the legal battle continues in the court, the
senator relishes his privilege as one of the
nation’s federal lawmakers.
Domingo Obende
The senator representing Edo North senatorial
district of Edo State, Domingo Obende, of the
APC was one of the nation’s lawmakers with a
moral burden to prove that the documents
presented for election into public offices were
not forged.
A PDP candidate, Yisa Braimoh, had accused
Obende of forging his primary school certificate
for the 2011 National Assembly election.
A lawsuit Braimoh filed against Obende was
dismissed in 2012. He appealed the judgment
but the ruling was upheld by the Court of
Appeal.
For the senator, that was not just an electoral
victory, it was a vindication of his integrity.
Maurice Iwu
Professor Maurice Iwu was INEC’s Chairman
between 2005 and 2010. Last year, the National
Human Rights Commission recommended his
prosecution for conducting what international
observers perceived as one of the most bizarre
elections ever held in the world.
The outcome inaugurated the strange staggering
of governorship elections now in vogue in the
country and affecting Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti,
Osun and Kogi states, where election tribunals
upturned the fraud-tainted results.
He bears more burden than that; even his
personal integrity was under question as
SaharaReporters questioned whether Iwu was
actually a pharmacist and if he had a first
degree from a university in Cameroon.
The online publication claimed that Iwu attended
Biafra Holy Rosary School of Pharmacy,
Ummuna Orlu from 1968-1969 where he dropped
out in Class 4, coinciding with the same period
he indicated to the University of Bradford to
have graduated from a university in Cameroon.
Following his stint at the school of pharmacy,
the ex-INEC boss was said to have undertaken
a course, Dispensing Pharmacy Technician in
Compounding, in Côte d’Ivoire, under the
Biafran-Ivory Coast training scholarships for
Biafrans. The course was for two months.
Following the end of the Biafran war, he landed
a job as a dispensing chemist (though he was
alleged to have paraded himself as a medical
doctor to many of his ‘patients’) in Enugu at 35
Zik Avenue, Uwani, opposite Leventis stores,
Enugu. He held this job between 1970 and 1973.
Iwu has neither refuted or confirmed these
allegations and INEC, too, has remained silent
on the matter.
Following the role he allegedly played in
connection with the N23.29bn bribery of INEC
officials, the EFCC is said to be on his trail.
A LinkedIn profile of Iwu indicated that he went
to “Lagos University” between 1972 and 1977.
But another record, according to
SaharaReporters showed that the ex-INEC boss
obtained his undergraduate, master’s and PhD
degrees from University of Bradford between
1972 and 1978.
Ndi Okereke-Onyuike
In 2011, according to an online medium,
Nigerianvillagesquare.com, the US Securities and
Exchange Commission had sent a request to the
City University of New York’s Graduate School
asking to know if a former Director General of
the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Okereke-Onyiuke,
had a PhD. The response of the school’s
Director of Student Services and Senior Registrar
of CUNY’s Graduate School, Vincent De Luca,
was startling.
The statement of the school obtained by our
correspondent from the website quoted De Luca
as saying, “On January 18, 2011, I caused a
search to be conducted of our student records
(including graduation records) at The Graduate
Center, at the request of the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission, to
determine if Ms. Ndi Okereke–Onyiuke was ever
enrolled in the PhD programme in Business and
if she received a PhD in Business at The
Graduate Centre.
“A thorough search of our electronic and paper
files for the names, Ndi Leche Okereke, Ndi
Okereke, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and Ndi Lechi
Okereke–Onyiuke was conducted. No record was
found that Ms. Ndi Okereke–Onyiuke ever
enrolled in the PhD programme in Business or
received a PhD in Business at The Graduate
Centre.”
That the former NSE boss earned a first class
honours degree in Business Administration,
Computer Science and Economics, from Baruch
College of the City College of the City, University
of New York in 1975, is also said to be
contestable – as the institution was said to be
non-existent at least in the US, according to
SaharaReporters.
The “Amazon” of the NSE still has all the
academic records glowingly displayed on
Bloomberg’s Executive Profile for big guns. She
has also yet to counter the rebuttal of the
CUNY’s Graduate School; and no law
enforcement agency in Nigeria is known to have
looked into her issue.
Christian Abah
This month, the Supreme Court ended the
dreams of Christian Abah of enjoying the
privilege of making laws for the country.
Abah, a member of the House of Representatives
representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadigbo Federal
Constituency of Benue State, was kicked out of
the legislative chamber.
He was earlier given the boot by a Federal High
Court in Abuja in 2016 for submitting a forged
certificate of academic qualification to INEC.
The court had ordered INEC to issue fresh
certificate of return to Abah’s first runner-up in
the PDP’s primary held in 2014, Hassan Saleh.
The apex court affirmed that he had forged the
Ordinary National Diploma certificate purportedly
issued to him in 1985 by the Federal
Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa State.
“It is a must, to take the lead, righting the
wrong in our society if and when the opportunity
presents itself as in this appeal. Allowing
criminality and certificate forgery to continue to
percolate into the streams, waters and oceans of
our national polity will only mean that our
waters are and will remain dangerously
contaminated.
“The purification efforts must start now and be
sustained as we seek, as a nation, to now
change from our old culture of reckless impunity.
The Nigerian Constitution is supreme. It desires
that no one who has ever presented a forged
certificate to INEC should contest election into
the Nigerian National Assembly. This is clear
and sacrosanct,” the court had said while
delivering its judgment.
Abah was said to have, in addition to tendering
a forged certificate for the 2015 election, falsely
claimed in the INEC’s Form CF001 ahead of the
2015 general elections that he had never
submitted a forged certificate to INEC, contrary
to an earlier judgment of an election petition
tribunal in 2011, declaring that the certificate
submitted by him was forged.
The Executive Chairman, Centre for Anti-
Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran,
told SUNDAY PUNCH that the Nigerian socio-
economic and political system is set up to
encourage fraud.
Adeniran, expressing his disdain for the
government’s inability to provide access to free
education to Nigerians and blaming such for
forging educational certificates, said, “This is not
to say that it is correct to forge certificates for
the purpose of getting into elective offices or any
other purpose. No; this is because the act itself
is not just criminal, it is morally wrong and
depicts a low sense of self-respect and esteem
about the forger. It shows lack of self-
confidence in one’s inherent abilities and the
false need to parade oneself as what one is not.
It is moral bankruptcy. An honest person would
not lie about educational qualifications no
matter what.”
What the laws say Concerning perjury, Section
118 of the Criminal Code says, “Any person who
commits perjury is liable to imprisonment for 14
years. If the offender commits the offence in
order to procure the conviction of another person
for an offence punishable with death or with
imprisonment for life, he is liable to
imprisonment for life.”
On forgery, Section 465, of the Criminal Code
Act, says, “A person who makes a false
document or writing knowing it to be false, and
with intent that it may in any way be used or
acted upon as genuine, whether in the state or
elsewhere, to the prejudice of any person or with
intent that any person may, in the belief that it
is genuine, be induced to do or refrain from
doing any act, whether in the state or elsewhere
is said to forge the document or writing.”
But Nigeria’s wheel of justice may grind too
slowly to exact punishment on culprits of perjury
and forgery, especially among politically exposed
individuals.
“One needs not to be told that anyone capable
of forging a certificate to get into office is
extremely likely to perpetrate corruption if
elected into office. This is one of what is
responsible for the rampant corrupt and sharp
practices we witness in public and elected
offices on daily basis,” the CACOL boss pointed
out.