This is the reason APC gave for disqualifying Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki in its primaries for governorship in Edo State (see below). The HSC one, if true, is solid. However, the NYSC one is not that strong. Yes, the NYSC misspelling of Obaseki’s name could have been easily rectified since the University of Ibadan confirmed that he did graduate there.
Personally, I would not have expected anyone to have skipped NYSC during the time period being considered. Nigeria was at the peak and life was good. There was no need for a prior- visa to enter London. You just buy a ticket, and the airline would give you a visa. And when in London to watch Liverpool play Everton, you could decide to visit Yankees in New York. Right there, you will get a visa to the U.S. on your Nigerian passport. Jos, Plateau state, was the Cape Town of that African era. The marks remain if you have lived in Jos, with Hillcrest, Gomwalk Blvd and other domains designed for foreigners.
Nigeria sent 637 students to Tuskegee University on scholarships as it was not a big deal to study in the U.S. than it was for UNN and UI. The Naira was stronger than the dollar and the Nigerian economy was firing on all cylinders. Your village was still doing gun salutes to celebrate passing FSLC (primary education) because that guaranteed a good life. So, for someone to skip NYSC would be extremely uncommon!
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 14 (June 3 – Sept 2, 2024) begins registrations; get massive discounts with early registration here.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Of course, crazy things happen: a guy was politically knocked down in Osun state over WAEC even though he was born into wealth. You wonder – did they not send him to school in the midst of that wealth? So, who knows if Obaseki was real on that HSC.
“Mr Godwin Obaseki: Though, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki in his nomination form claimed to have obtained a Higher School Leaving Certificate from an Institute of Continuing Education, Benin. It was observed however that no educational certificate such as HSC is known in Nigerian educational system. Even then, the same HSC was never presented in the course of the screening exercise. The aspirant admitted that he has never collected it.
“The attestation from the Institute of Continuing Education, Benin from where the alleged HSC which was indicated in the field of attendance as obtained is of no consequence, as it only attests that Obaseki was a student of the Institute. So what we had was like an attendance. It was just attendance, it was not a result.
“Although, the Committee received a petition on his University of Ibadan Bachelor of Arts Classics certificate which he submitted to INEC in 2016 when he first contested as governor, the committee on further probing was presented with an original certificate issued by the University and the original was sighted.
“On the NYSC certificate dated 6th August 1980, the committee observed that he bears the name ‘Obasek’ Godwin. While this may be an error on the part of the issuing authority, we observed however that the aspirant has not taken any step ever to have the anomaly corrected by the issuing authority.
“In our interaction with issues raised, we concluded that HSC was defective. The NYSC certificate and the fact that the aspirant took the party to court, the above aspirant, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, therefore, is not eligible to participate in the election.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Jun 3 - Sep 2, 2024), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
Many of these guys never went to school, some that entered never graduated, some joined secret cults; they never came out with anything. The only surprise was that they never knew they could become relevant, politically, let alone stea2l or winning elections. Some in the past and present Senate only attended primary school, they know themselves; all the talks about being graduates are for paper, they never approached any university for education, other than to purchase certificates.
We are not here to defend or side any of them, they are largely empty, most never achieved anything in their entire lives, just cheating their way through, committing frauds here and there.
Four years ago they didn’t check these things, now they are relevant. Yet these are the folks they attach ‘His Excellency’ to their names. The president still has asterisk on his secondary school education, and we are here talking about certificates. The worse of us have always emerged as rulers here, so no surprises.
Let them keep fighting and embarrassing themselves, when we are ready, we can move in and take over the place.
The truth is that most of them are not Worthy to be elected to office . He entered through pashpash they sent him out with the same pashpash certificate . Madam Kemi Adeosun would have done are part but same people that help her with pashpash use it against her .
Lesson.
Always do the right thing even iif it will cost you extral year and be the rightous man .
Nigerian politicians do not have conscience. The same man used these same certificates endorsed by this same group to become governor four years ago. The same people are questioning the certificates. This is preposterous to say the least and a very sad commentary. The whole world is watching us.
In this same country, we were told that you do not need any certificate to hold a political office. It is enough if you can read and write.
Politicians have always been consistent in inconsistency.
Who did this to us?
“It was observed however that no educational certificate such as HSC is known in Nigerian educational system”. Really?.
To my knowledge, there was HSC (Higher School Certificate) also know as A’ Level. To some of your readers who might not understand how this works then. Students attend 2 years of what was called A’level (Advance level schooling made up of “Lower six” for the first yr. and “Upper six” for the second yr.) after completing their of O’ Level (WAEC or SSCE). If a student is successful at the end of the program, the result is applied to University application. The HCS/A’level program fundamentally allows you to skip year 1 of University program and join the 2nd year students- it was popularly referred to as the “Direct Entry program” then.
There were a number of these schools across Nigeria then that ran this program. Most elite secondary schools made provision for the program (Kings College Lagos & Victory College Ikare etc). The Federal government also established some schools specifically for this program. Examples are Federal School of Art & Science Ikot Ekpene and Federal School of Art & Science Ondo.
I just want to set the record straight that there was HCS program an in Nigeria. I attended one. I left after lower six (1st yr.) and never collected the result because I never used it. Maybe Obaseki only attended the lower six programs like me and never collected the certificate.
Just curious
Thank you very much for clarifying this and setting the record straight.
Same way in future some people will say IJMB never existed.
For the verification Committee to have concluded that there was no HSC in Nigeria is not correct. HSC is Higher School Certificate, which is equivalent of GCE Advanced Level. Some schools offered the HSC programs then, like the Federal Schools of Arts and Science and some secondary schools. Some of the secondary schools that offered HSC included Ondo High School. Ondo (where I did mine from September 1979 – May/June 1981); Oyemekun Grammar School, Akure; etc. The Higher School Certificates are Advanced Level Certificates. You could get the A-Level certificate either sitting for the GCE A-Level examination or taking HSC exam conducted by WAEC then through the schools that offered the HSC programs. Many of those who went to Continuing Education Institutions used the schools to prepare for GCE A-Level. If you have GCE A-Level or the HSC, you get into the Universities through Direct Entry where you start your course in Part 1, instead of the one year Preliminary level that those with Secondary School Certificates start from. The secondary School Certificate is the Ordinary-Level. So the conclusion by the verification committee that there was no HSC in Nigeria is wrong.
This is not to support anybody, but to put facts right
Sorry Dr you missed it, what they said is that Institutes of Continuing Education only prepare students for HSC exams conducted by WAEC and only WAEC can issue certificate in that regard not the Institute, the guy presented a letter of attestation from the Institute and not a WAEC HSC certificate. The committee said that there is no such thing in NIgeria as a HSC certificate issued by an Institute, it must come from WAEC as the exam body recognized for such.