A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr Monday Ubani, has said President Bola Tinubu was under no constitutional obligation to submit his primary and secondary school certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission, insisting that the omission does not invalidate his nomination for the 2027 presidential election.
Ubani stated this on Wednesday during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese Ijebu, while reacting to renewed controversy over Tinubu’s educational credentials after former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye, alleged that the President failed to include his primary and secondary school certificates among the documents submitted to INEC.
The senior lawyer maintained that the issue should be interpreted strictly within the provisions of the Constitution and not on public sentiment.
“It is about the law, not about maybe sentiment or bias, which I see flying about,” Ubani said.
He explained that Section 131 of the Constitution only requires a presidential candidate to show evidence of having attained education up to school certificate level or its equivalent and does not compel the submission of primary or secondary school certificates.
“The Constitution says that whosoever will run for the office of the president must possess, show that he has attained the level up to school certificate level,” he stated.
Ubani argued that judicial pronouncements had already settled the issue, stressing that there was no legal requirement for candidates to physically produce school certificates.
“There’s no legal compulsion that he must disclose his certificate or he must show it. I’ll say that it’s only a moral issue and it has nothing to do with legal compulsion,” he added.
He further noted that where a candidate presents a recognised university degree, the law presumes the person had passed through the lower levels of education unless proven otherwise.
“If somebody has a degree, the presumption is that he must have passed through primary school, secondary school, and university. So it is for you now to rebut it,” Ubani said.
While acknowledging that the omission of lower educational certificates could generate public concerns over transparency, he insisted that it did not amount to a constitutional violation.
“I agree that ordinarily, whoever is submitting his credentials should have shown evidence of his primary school certificate and should have also shown evidence of his secondary school certificate. These are moral issues. These are issues of transparency,” he said.
Ubani also defended INEC’s role, saying the electoral body was only required to publish candidates’ documents for public scrutiny and had no legal mandate to verify their authenticity.
“There is no provision in the Act that gives INEC the supervisory role of authenticating and qualifying or disqualifying a candidate. The law now has provided a remedy for anyone who feels that whatever information that a candidate has given to INEC is false,” he stated.
He added that any challenge to a candidate’s educational qualifications must be filed within the period prescribed by law after INEC publishes the particulars of candidates.
“If you are challenging the certificate issue, this is the right time for you to do it within 14 days after the publication. If you fail to do it now under the new Act, I don’t think you can bring it up as a post-qualification issue,” he said.
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Headline: Constitution Doesn’t Compel Presidential Candidates To Produce School Certificates, SAN Clarifies
A constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr Monday Ubani, has clarified that the Nigerian Constitution does not compel presidential candidates to submit their primary and secondary school certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission as part of their nomination documents.
Ubani made the clarification on Wednesday during an interview on Frontline, a programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese Ijebu, following public debate over President Bola Tinubu’s nomination documents for the 2027 presidential election.
According to him, the constitutional requirement is limited to proving that a candidate has attained education up to school certificate level or its equivalent.
“There’s no constitutional compulsion to show certificate and there is a judicial pronouncement to that effect that the constitution does not require a certificate of production. It’s just for you to show that you have been educated up to that level,” he said.
Ubani stressed that possessing a recognised university degree creates a legal presumption that the holder must have completed the preceding stages of education.
“If somebody has a degree, the presumption is that he must have passed through primary school, secondary school, and university. So it is for you now to rebut it,” he stated.
The senior lawyer, however, admitted that candidates should ideally present all educational credentials in the interest of transparency.
“I agree that ordinarily, whoever is submitting his credentials should have shown evidence of his primary school certificate and should have also shown evidence of his secondary school certificate. These are moral issues. These are issues of transparency,” he said.
On INEC’s responsibility, Ubani maintained that the commission was not empowered to authenticate candidates’ certificates but only to publish them for public scrutiny.
“There is no provision in the Act that gives INEC the supervisory role of authenticating and qualifying or disqualifying a candidate,” he said.
He also advised that any aggrieved person questioning a candidate’s educational qualifications should approach the court within the statutory period after INEC publishes the candidate’s particulars.
