BUHARI’S SCHOOL CERTIFICATE CONTROVERSY: THE BANE OF POOR RECORD

KEEPING IN NIGERIA
President Muhamadu Buhari has always insisted that his WAEC certificate was with
the Secretary of the Military Board. But, in 2015, the military, through its then
director of Army Public Relations, Olajide Laleye, denied that it was in possession
of the certificate and that there was no record to show that Buhari submitted such
important document.
Even Government College Katsina, the secondary school where Buhari was said to
have written the examinations in 1961, did not have a copy of the original
certificate nor the original certificate number. The school only had a statement of
result signed by the principal of the school in 2015 and a computer printout from
Cambridge University.
Had WAEC been able to authenticate this computer printout from Cambridge in
2015, nobody would have been talking of Buhari’s WAEC certificate today.
Unfortunately, and because of this delay from WAEC, Buhari had to get the services
of a litany of lawyers to defend himself after an Abuja-based legal practitioner,
Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe, accused him of forging his WAEC results.
Now, the president has used a window opened by the West African Examination
Council, for candidates who might have lost their certificates, to obtain a
‘’confirmation of result’’.
Unfortunately, this whole certificate debacle brings to the fore the nation’s poor
bookkeeping culture and its consequences on the fight against corruption.
According to the World Bank, a well arranged record system provides cost effective
deterrent to fraud and corruption. Little wonder, research as shown that poor
record keeping in the public sector has been the major obstacle in the prosecution
of corruption cases in Nigeria. Since many agencies –especially the police -- still use
papers and files in storing important records, disappearance of files are
commonplace in many cases of corruption.
The problem of retrieving information in Nigeria was highlighted in a paper
presented by Femi Falana (SAN). In the paper, Falana wrote: “I went to USA some
time ago to get a certified copy of a judgement that was passed about 15 years ago;
I got it in just 30 minutes, but in Nigeria, one may not even get it. Nigeria is still
operating in the Stone Age management of record keeping; there is need to change
that’’.
The courts and the military are not the only institutions without a good record
keeping culture in Nigeria.
The story of National Archives of Nigeria (NAN) is heart-wrenching. According to
the Federal Ministry of Information, many of the nation’s documentary heritage
have found their way outside Nigeria. NAN Zonal offices located in Ibadan, Kaduna,
and Enugu built in the 60s for want of maintenance are a shadow of their former
selves.
Buhari’s certificate debacle has exposed Nigerian institutions to ridicule in the
international community. Nigerian institutions –especially important institutions
like NAN and the military -- need a good bookkeeping culture.