FLASHBACK: What Cambridge University Said About Buhari’s WAEC Certificate

The media has been awash with renewed controversy surrounding President Muhammadu Buhari’s academic credentials in the last one week, just as was seen in the run up to the 2015 elections.

Questions are being raised mostly from the camp of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after President Buhari failed again to submit his senior school certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

The president had last week in an affidavit he submitted to INEC said, “I am the above-named person and the deponent of this affidavit herein. All my academic qualification documents as filled in my Presidential form, APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary of the Military Board as of the time of this affidavit.”

Buhari’s submission however attracted reactions both from the opposition PDP and the citizens who took to social media to express mixed opinions.

The opposition party had said, “Integrity demands that you write to military authorities asking them to forward your credentials to INEC,” adding that “Even Buhari’s followers are not prepared to accept NEPA Bill for WAEC in 2019.”

Checks however show that the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, UCLES, now Cambridge Assessment, had in a statement on January 23, 2015, affirmed some of the claims President Buhari made regarding his credentials.

FULL STATEMENT BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE IN RESPONSE TO NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ENQUIRIES:

23 January 2015

The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), now known as Cambridge Assessment, in response to requests to authenticate a candidate’s exam certificate, today said: “We can only confirm or verify results at the direct request of or with the permission of a candidate.”

“This is in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.”

The organisation also confirmed that according to the Regulations for 1961, African Language papers, including those for Hausa were set for the West African School Certificate.

NOTES:

Examination results were classed in grades by 1 to 9. 1,2,3,4,5 & 6 indicate a Pass with Credit; 7 & 8 indicate a Pass; 9 indicates a Failure.To pass the School Certificate, candidates had to pass examinations in a variety of groups. It was compulsory to pass English Language, but not Maths, in order to gain the Certificate.The number of candidates who sat for the WASC Hausa examination in 1961 was 152.Our records show that Hausa was set in the Northern Region in 1961.