Nigeria's ruling party wants opposition presidential candidate disqualified

Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) claimed Saturday that the candidate for All Progressives Congress (APC) was not qualified to contest the forthcoming presidential election.

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari's inability to submit his first School Leaving Certificate to Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) was enough to disqualify him, Femi-Fani Kayode, spokesperson for the party's Presidential Campaign Organization, said this at a news conference in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

He said the inability of Buhari to present the minimum requirement - his first school leaving certificate - questioned his morals and other credentials for pursuing his ambition.

The former minister of aviation told reporters that the realization brought to the fore how and what qualifications were used to recruit the retired General into the military, without the minimum of a school leaving certificate.

This, said the spokesman, was especially so when he rose to the rank of a General and became the Head of State through a military coup that truncated a democratically-elected government in 1983.

The spokesman queried INEC's alleged involvement in a cover-up with the APC presidential candidate.

He said beyond the moral burden of human rights abuses and other sundry anti-democratic practices in Buhari's public records, his disdain for democratic conduct had not changed.

Fani-Kayode added that academic qualification was an issue that could not be waived for any citizen, irrespective of his position and religion except as provided by the constitution. Endite