Ndume to Opposition: Focus on Tinubu’s performance, not certificates

Former Senate Leader and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ali Ndume, has challenged opposition parties to focus their criticism on President Bola Tinubu’s governance performance rather than his academic paperwork and certificates.

Ndume said the opposition should focus on the economy, insecurity and other issues affecting Nigerians instead of making Tinubu’s certificate the centre of its campaign.

He spoke in a statement issued to journalists in Abuja on Monday.

Ndume said, “The narrative around his certificate is distracting. What opposition presidential candidates should be doing is to tell Nigerians what they have to offer.

“What are their alternative economic policies? What can they do better than President Tinubu?

“They should interrogate his economic policies and how his government has handled insecurity. The President has been in office for over three years now.

“So why should his certificates be the main talking point?”

There have been renewed concerns among opposition figures after checks showed that in the EC9 form submitted by Tinubu, the columns for primary and secondary schools were left blank.

The President only listed a B.Sc in Business Administration from Chicago State University, obtained in 1979. He attached his degree certificate and NYSC discharge certificate.

Ndume, however, said the President had met the requirements of the law.

Quoting Section 131(d) of the 1999 Constitution, he said, “The Constitution only sets a minimum educational qualification. It does not say it must be a secondary school certificate.”

The section provides that a candidate must be “educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.”

He also noted that issues around Tinubu’s qualification were already settled by the courts after the 2023 election.

The lawmaker urged opposition parties to raise the tone of the campaigns.

The former Senate Leader further said, “As we move deeper into campaigns, the opposition should elevate the discourse beyond pettiness.

“As Eleanor Roosevelt once put it, great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”