{"id":2272,"date":"2019-04-18T11:19:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T10:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=2272"},"modified":"2019-08-26T16:53:34","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T15:53:34","slug":"keyamo-is-right-waec-certificate-not-compulsory-for-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/keyamo-is-right-waec-certificate-not-compulsory-for-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"Keyamo is Right! WAEC Certificate Not Compulsory For Presidency!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CLAIM:<\/strong> You do not need A WAEC certificate to become the President of Nigeria<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONCLUSION: <\/strong>TRUE<\/p>\n\n\n

FULL STORY:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress [APC] Presidential Campaign Council for the 2019 Presidential election, Festus Keyamo, kicked off a storm in the polity when he declared on a Channels Television programme that one does not require the West African Examination Council [WAEC] certificate to become the President of Nigeria. <\/span><\/p>\n

Keyamo, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria was responding to allegations that his principal, the President, does not possess the WAEC certificate. <\/span><\/p>\n

Keyamo told his interviewer that the President possesses the certificate, a fact attested to by the fact that officials of WAEC came to the Presidential Villa to present the certificate to the President.<\/span><\/p>\n

He, however, went on to say that a WAEC certificate is not a requirement for qualification for the office of President.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is Keyamo right? \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The answer is in the affirmative as the supreme law of the land, the 1999 Constitution (as amended) supports his position.\u00a0<\/span>Section 131 of the Constitution states the qualifications for the office of the President.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the section: \u201cA person shall be qualified for election to the office of President, if:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. He is a citizen of Nigeria by birth;<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n
  2. He has attained the age of 40 years;<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n
  3. He is a member of a political party<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n
  4. He has been educated up to <\/span>at least school certificate or its equivalent”<\/b><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    DUBAWA <\/b>has deliberately highlighted “at least school certificate or its equivalent.”\u00a0<\/span>The logical question that follows is to ask what is meant by the underlined words.<\/span><\/p>\n

    To understand this and put the issue in perspective, DUBAWA examined the interpretation section of the Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This is Section 318 of the Constitution. According to the Section: \u201cSchool Certificate or its equivalent” means:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. A Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent or Grade II Teacher\u2019s Certificate, City and Guilds certificate; or<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Education up to Secondary School Certificate level; or<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Primary Six School Leaving certificate or its equivalent and –\u00a0<\/span>\n
        \n
      • service in the public or private sector in the Federation in any capacity acceptable to the Independent National Electoral Commission for a minimum of ten years and<\/li>\n
      • attendance at courses and training institutions as may be acceptable to the Independent National Electoral Commission for periods totaling up to a minimum of one year, and<\/li>\n
      • the ability to read, write, understand and communicate in the English language to the satisfaction of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
      • any other qualification acceptable by the Independent National Electoral Commission.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Conclusion<\/b>: <\/span><\/p>\n

        Although one requires a minimum of a first degree to work as a Teller in a bank or to even be considered for the post of a security guard in some companies, regrettably, one does not need a WAEC Certificate to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. <\/span><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Although one requires a minimum of a first degree to work as a Teller in a bank or to even be considered for the post of a security guard in some companies, regrettably, one does not need a WAEC Certificate to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[16],"tags":[347],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[872],"class_list":["post-2272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-featured"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-AE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":872,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"temilade-david","display_name":"Temilade Onilede","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d6f9f25c4a1105f1461a19d25d8fa7128cd9c2b7e635218f3771f1e74c82f8c?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Temilade Onilede is a researcher and the Programme Assistant for Dubawa, Nigeria. She holds an undergraduate degree in Performing Arts From the University of Ilorin, Ilorin Kwara State.\r\nShe is a trained journalist, with good research and writing skills, coupled with her knowledge in Journalism; a personable character and an engaging mind who is well skilled in the field of fact-checking and verification."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Keyamo-1000x600.jpg?fit=1000%2C600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=2272"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}