Thousands of youths, men and women today stormed Abuja, giving a week’s ultimatum to the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the 2015 elections, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd.), to table his secondary school certificate before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) or they will go to court.

The protesters, reportedly numbering over 3,000, were led by the National Coordinator of Coalition of Nigerian Youth for Good Governance, Godwin Meliga, and a female activist, Princess Amarachi Nlumanze.

The protesters, who carried placard with various inscriptions; ‘Nigeria is bigger than one man’, ‘Mr Integrity show your certificate’, ‘Obey the law’, urged Buhari to comply with the electoral laws.

Speaking with journalists at the rally which commenced at the Unity Fountain, Meliga threatened legal action against Buhari if he fails to comply with the electoral laws and show his certificates.

“Buhari has been campaigning, telling everybody that he is Mr Integrity that promised to come and fight corruption. There is an allegation that he had no secondary school certificate. He should come out and show his certificate. He should come out and tell us whether he went to school or not,” Meliga said.

Citing former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, who came out publicly with his NYSC certificate after he was alleged of not participating in the one-year mandatory national youth service, Meliga told Buhari to do the same thing by coming out openly with evidence to dispel the allegation.

He said: “Nigerian youth are asking him to come out and present his certificate, because we don’t want an illiterate to rule us anymore.

“We are not stopping at this rally alone. INEC told us that they cannot stop Buhari, that it is only the court that can stop him. So, we are now saying that after this rally, we are giving Buhari one week to present his certificate or we will go to court, to ask an order for him to either present his certificate or be disqualified.”

Asked why the demand now, Meliga said: “This is the first time we are hearing about this. In the past, we did not know and the INEC had been silent about this, but some good Nigerians had verified from the INEC, and today we know that he has no certificate. PDP is not jittery over Buhari; we have beaten him before and we will still beat him.”

In her reaction, Nlumanze said the protest was to compel Buhari to do the right thing by fully complying with the electoral law.

“We want people to do the right thing,” she said. “We want justice, and we cannot avoid repeating the same mistake we have been making all this while. That is why we came up here to say, show us your certificate, if you say you are Mr. Integrity.”

•Photo shows a cross section of the anti-Buhari protesters.

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