Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has canvassed mandatory submission of academic certificates by candidates for elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) six months before every election.
Obi, in a post on his X yesterday, said the idea could be a part of the proposed amendment to the nation’s electoral law.
In a veiled reference to the forgery saga involving Science and Technology Minister Godffrey Nnaji, the former Anambra State governor wrote: “These certificates, alongside details of schools attended, what was studied and years of study, should be made public for verification within 90 days.
‘This process must also apply to appointed officials, ministers and even aides, because when dishonesty starts from the top, it spreads to every level of governance, just like it’s happening now.
‘We must deal with certificate forgery holistically with the seriousness and level of criminality it deserves. Criminal offences should not be dismissed as a mere procedural matter’.
He referred to Indonesia, where, according to him, officials who contested elections with forged certificates or did not attend schools but claimed to have, got kicked out and prosecuted.
The former LP candidate noted that even though Nigeria has similar laws, INEC does not scrutinise certificates before the elections.
He said: ‘(INEC) overlooks complaints of forgery, and when challenged after the elections, the court will dismiss the serious criminal issues as ‘pre-election matters’ without giving this criminal act appropriate punishment’.
‘INEC, even after the elections, does not bother to revisit or investigate these serious offences before the next election’.
The former governor said another issue that worries him is how ‘criminals and dishonest people’ scale through all layers of scrutiny by security, parliament and government agencies.
‘Even more disturbing, amounting to double tragedy, is that most of these dishonest people swore an affidavit before a law court attesting to the authenticity of the documents they presented.
‘We are now preparing for the 2027 general elections. INEC has enough time to investigate past complaints about various forms of forgery and false claims’, Obi said.
