By Adadareporters
Experts and concerned Nigerians, Thursday, made a case for forensic examination of all certificates being paraded by political office-holders, civil servants and public servants in Nigeria.
The call is sequel to increasing allegations of certificate forgery among the nation’s politicians, including the country’s number one citizen, President Bola Tinubu, who is accused of forging the certificate he tendered for his election by former vice-president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Recall that the national president of the Eastern Union, Charles Anike, alleged that ‘there are many politicians and civil servants parading fake certificates in Nigeria’. He therefore called for forensic checks to ascertain the genuineness of all certificates of civil servants and political office-holders in Nigeria, and punishing the culprits accordingly.
Dr Law Mefor is a forensic expert. According to him, “Certificate forgery has since become a pandemic in Nigeria. It ranges from the acquisition of certificates by proxy to outright faking or forging certificates for an education they never received at all. It is prevalent among politicians but also rampant among civil servants and public servants. Solution to it is actually simple: launch certificate verifications for all official and electoral dealings and try all forgers and send them to jail. Others will learn once such examples are made of these intellectual thieves.”
A civil rights activist, Nze Kanayo Chukwumezie, said, “Charging Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Nigeria for forgery and sentencing him if guilty will send the right signal. Then all certificates of public office-holders should be thoroughly screened and any case of forgery prosecuted.”
A retired operative of the DSS, who did not want to be mentioned, said, “Who among us is ready to do the right thing? The system can be cleaned up when we get it right from the leadership position. Let every political office seeker be subjected to vetting by the Department of State Service (DSS). The secrets of these evil politicians, political appointees and other desperate job seekers will be exposed.
“The purpose of vetting is to eliminate those with questionable characters and also deny them access to government classified materials or information of value. Some of these characters today, because of their religious backgrounds, have been occupying government sensitive positions which is not healthy to our security. If such people are allowed, nothing will happen to their own even when they are accused of fake certificates or cases of other crimes in nature. No society can get it right except we all encourage vetting in our system.”
The president of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria, Enugu State chapter, Dr Ambrose Igboke, called on political parties, INEC and other government agencies to save Nigeria’s democracy by thoroughly scrutinising certificates tendered to them to check forgery.
Quoting him, “INEC and political parties should save our democracy by being more diligence on certificates presented by candidates for elections. Political parties should begin the process by doing a forensic investigation of the certificates tendered by its members going in for election primaries. A simple search at the educational institution claimed by the candidate can reveal the authenticity. The political parties can engage a third party investigator or DSS to do that simple job.
“INEC can also double check all credentials of the candidates for elections. These activities should be budgeted for in each election. We must save the integrity of our electoral process and our democracy.”
