The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has made clear the requirements that an aspirant seeking to contest the office of Governor must possess to qualify to run in the election.
INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood made the criteria known again ahead of the governorship election in Edo State which has been generating controversy on the issue of the requirements that an aspirant must meet. Yakubu stated the criteria during the second virtual consultative meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, on Wednesday.
According to the INEC Chairman, a candidate nominated by a political party must be a Nigerian citizen by birth. The person must have attained the age of 35. Such person must be a member of and sponsored by a political party. The person must be educated up to at least School Certificate level or equivalent. Those were the four criteria emphasized by Yakubu for a candidate to be qualified to contest for Governor in line with the minimum requirements as contained in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). It means that whoever meets these criteria is qualified to run for the office of the Governor without any hindrance.
This clarification becomes necessary going by the drama that played out during the screening of the aspirants for the primary of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Edo State. During that screening, the incumbent Governor, Godwin Obaseki was disqualified. According to the screening committee, Appeal committee and the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, Obaseki was disqualified mainly due to discrepancies in his certificates. The emphasis was on Obaseki’s High School Certificate(HSC), his first degree from the University of Ibadan (UI) and then his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate.
Meanwhile, Obaseki insisted that his certificates were authentic. UI stated publicly that Obaseki was their student and was issued the first degree after graduating from the institution in 1979. The screening committee admitted that the omission of one letter in Obaseki’s NYSC discharge certificate might be an error from the issuing institution, that is, the NYSC. But it said that Obaseki did not take steps to correct it. Which means the committe did not expressly say that Obaseki’s NYSC certificate is fake.
The most important point is that, to qualify to run for the office of the Governor according to the constitution which is supreme, one needs to be educated up to school certificate level or its equivalent. That was the major point as emphasized by the INEC Chairman concerning academic requirement. For now, that is the major academic requirement. It did not even say that the candidate must pass. No, it did not say that. The candidate just have to be educated up to the school certificate level or its equivalent. That is all. Other requirements do not have to do with academic qualification.
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Based on that, all these certificate issues against Obaseki should not come up in the first place. This is because the certificates are all above school certificate level. They are all higher academic certificates which are not required for one to contest for Governor for now pending when the constitution is amended to require higher academic certificate. As for the HSC, Obaseki showed that he attended the programme. This analysis is necessary because some people are saying that no other political party can field Obaseki as their governorship candidate based on what the APC said made them disqualify him.
In fact, the APC even said that they would go to court if any other party fields Obaseki as its governorship candidate. That would be opposition taken too far by the ruling party. The APC is most likely to lose if it does that. The court knows the minimum requirements to contest for Governor as pointed out again by INEC. In fact, even if they drag Obaseki to court, INEC is still going to be called in to testify or INEC will be joined as a party in the suit. INEC will still state the requirements and defend its decision to accept Obaseki because he met the stipulated requirements to contest.
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As plans are on ground for Obaseki to defect to another party to seek reelection, it is necessary that he and the party he is joining weigh all these and be assured that he is qualified to contest. They should not be bothered about the reasons why APC disqualified him. If APC had disqualified Obaseki for forgery and the party was able to prove that the Governor forged any of his certificates, then, it would be a solid reason against him. In that case, one or more of the issuing institutions like UI, NYSC or others would have testified against Obaseki saying that it did not issue him the certificate in question. But that was not the case.
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So, Obaseki should make up his mind to join any party of his choice that accepts him. From the look of things, the Governor is most likely to join the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Obaseki has made some moves to suggest that. Moreover, there are reports that he is in high powered negotiations with the leaders of the party and other key decision makers. Obaseki would want to discuss with the powers that be in PDP the possibility of getting the the party’s governorship ticket before he officially defects to the party. That would be a wise decision to take so that he would get concrete assurance of the PDP’s ticket before he defects to the party.
This is also necessary because there is no time to waste. In fact, INEC Chairman also announced Saturday June 27, 2020 as the deadline for all the participating political parties in the Edo election to conclude their primaries. Yakubu made that known during the virtual consultative meeting in Abuja on Wednesday. Also, parties are to submit the names and other details of their candidates for the election latest by 6pm on Monday, June 29, 2020. With the deadline for primaries less than 10 days from now, Obaseki has to make a very quick decision of whether to remain in the APC amid its Acting National Chairmanship crisis or defect to another party which is most likely going to be the PDP.
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This is because the APC, the PDP and other parties will be quick to conduct their primaries so as to meet the deadline. APC will do its primary on June 22. PDP and others will follow suit. There is no time to waste. It is a battle very crucial to Obaseki as he fights to secure a second term in office amid stiff oppositions on his way.
