In 1999, a handsome young man contested a House of Representatives election in his constituency. He did not want to stop there; he also wanted to be the Speaker when he got to the House. Young Salisu Buhari knew that a beautiful university degree would spice up his CV. He had none but believed he could acquire one. “A lot of people are doing it”, he must have thought within himself.
Buhari brought out a big ball-shaped world map, closed his eyes and spinned the map. He used his index finger to stop the spinning ball and then opened his eyes to see where his finger landed. It landed in North America. He looked intently to see the lucky country, it was Canada.
Buhari smiled to himself, thanked his stars for picking a reputable country. He knew a degree from Canada would catch the fancy the fancy of the Independent National Electoral Commission. Salisu quickly searched through Canada and settled for a university founded in 1827 in Canada’s most populous city: University of Toronto.
Beaming with smile, Salisu sauntered to his expansive living room, humming a Dan Maraya song under his breath, picked up his NITEL landline and dialed his contacts in Oluwole, located on Lagos Island but notorious for fake documents. Within days, a beautifully-designed certificate of the University of Toronto, with honours in Business Administration was delivered to him.
Armed with the fake certificate, Buhari contested and won the election to represent Nasarawa federal constituency of Kano State in House of Representatives and also went ahead, with the help of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, to become the Speaker, Nigeria’s No. 4 citizen.
TheNEWS magazine, headed by Bayo Onanuga, exposed Buhari in their story titled The face of a liar: How Buhari deceived his nation. Buhari initially denied but when the University of Toronto, the issuing authority of the certificate, disowned him and told the whole world that the name, Salisu Buhari had never passed through the institution and also Business Administration is not offered at undergraduate level, Buhari was concerned.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, Buhari confessed, apologised to the nation and resigned not only as Speaker but also as a member of the House of Representatives.
Fast forward to 2016. Sahara Reporters broke a news that Senator Dino Melaye forged his Ahmadu Bello University certificate. The online newspaper alleged that, although Melaye attended Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), but he did not graduate. The news caused a frenzy among Melaye’s enemies and friends alike and caused the Senate to set up a committee.
The whole frenzy died down when ABU, the issuing authority of Melaye’s certificate, came out through its Vice-Chancellor and confirmed that he actually graduated and that the certificate he is parading was duly issued by them.
In the two stories, the matters were resolved immediately the issuing authorities of the certificates confirmed or disowned them. The issuing authority has the final say when it comes to authentication of a certificate or results
The case of Mmesoma Ejikeme defied this simple logic and common sense. Mmesoma sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and scored 249. Sensing that the score might not be enough to get her admitted to her preferred course in her preferred university, she contacted modern day digital Oluwole and she inflated her scores. She was greedy about it by making herself the highest scorer in the country. Talk of brazen senselessness.
Mmesoma did not wait for JAMB, she declared herself the MVP and started collecting scholarships from unsuspecting public. Anambra State government wanted to honour Mmesoma and contacted JAMB for verification of her scores. JAMB said nobody scored 362 in the last UTME, and provided iron cast evidence that Mmesoma doctored her results.
Mmesoma jumped on social media, did a video and started arguing with JAMB. She was trying to authenticate her own result despite agreeing that what she was holding as result was graphically different from the result of other 1.6 million candidates that sat for the examination.
I titled this piece “10th wonder of the world” because this is the first time in human history that a forger will contend and argue with the issuing authority of the document she forged. Not even Frank Abagnale in his hey days pulled such a stunt.
I became so worried for Nigeria when some morally bankrupt individuals threw their weight behind her. They, as usual, played the victim card and threw up shenanigans. It is glaring that these individuals must have bred or are breeding crooks as children. Nobody in his or her right senses will support Mmesoma in the face of concrete evidence brought out by JAMB.
They even called for the scrapping of JAMB over a candidate that forged a result. That is how low morals have sunk. It got to a head when the father of Mmesoma even accused JAMB of trying to rob his daughter of her glory. What a shameless father!
Mmesoma is 19, hence she is not a minor. In Canada, she will be referred to as a woman. She is old enough to face trial and should be charged for forgery. It is clear that she is a hardened criminal, a barefaced liar. Her boldness to stick to her guns in the face of overwhelming evidence is disgusting.
Mmesoma’s saga has almost robbed the real winner, Kamsiyochukwu Nkechinyere Umeh, her deserved fame and glamour. Fortunately for Nigeria, she is also from the same state as Mmesoma.
As for Mmesoma supporters, I am only worried but not surprised. They are the same people who said military should come and take over because their candidate lost an election. They said JAMB should be scrapped because one of their own forged result and I am also sure they will call for the judiciary to be scrapped when they lose in court. It is an insane cycle.
Everything is not politics. You cannot be politically correct at the detriment of the truth and yet claim that you want a good society. You cannot discredit all the institutions in your country and expect outsiders to respect you. Nigerian graduates are respected outside the country today because of the foundation JAMB laid and we should not let some irresponsible janjaweeds tarnish that reputation. Nigeria risks an implosion with these array of toxic citizens.
When you see a bad country, check the citizens. Bad and toxic people cannot make a good country.
