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Former Senate Leader and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ali Ndume, has urged opposition political parties to make the performance and policies of President Bola Tinubu the centre of their campaigns ahead of the 2027 presidential election, rather than his academic credentials.
Ndume, in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, said the renewed controversy over Tinubu’s certificates was becoming a distraction from the issues that should dominate the campaigns.
According to him, opposition parties seeking to unseat the President should be prepared to tell Nigerians what they would do differently if elected, particularly on the economy and insecurity.
His comments came amid renewed concerns in some opposition quarters over the academic credentials of Tinubu, especially the failure to indicate his primary and secondary school qualifications in the EC9 form submitted ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
In the form, Tinubu listed a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration obtained from Chicago State University, United States, in 1979, while the sections for primary and secondary school qualifications were left blank.
The President also attached copies of his university degree and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate to his nomination documents.
Ndume, however, dismissed the controversy, insisting that Tinubu had met the constitutional requirement for contesting the presidency.
He cited Section 131(d) of the 1999 Constitution, which states that a person seeking election as president must have been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.
The former Senate Leader argued that the Constitution did not prescribe a particular secondary school certificate as the only means of satisfying the requirement.
He also noted that Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the presidency had been subjected to litigation following the 2023 presidential election.
Ndume said the opposition should therefore concentrate on issues capable of influencing voters rather than revisiting questions that had already been extensively litigated.
“The narrative around his certificate, in my opinion, is distracting.
“What opposition parties’ presidential candidates and their spokespersons should focus on are their alternative economic policies, if they have any.
“What can they do better than President Tinubu? They should come out and tell Nigerians,” he said.
The APC chieftain said Tinubu’s more than three years in office provided sufficient basis for opposition parties to scrutinise his administration’s record and present alternatives to Nigerians.
He said the President’s economic policies and efforts to tackle insecurity should be subjected to rigorous debate as the 2027 campaign gathers momentum.
“He has been in office for over three years now. So, how can the narrative around his certificates be the focus of his challengers?
“I think as we progress in the campaigns, the opposition should elevate the discourse beyond the mundane,” Ndume said.
He urged the opposition to present clear programmes and policy alternatives capable of convincing Nigerians that their candidates could perform better than the incumbent.
Ndume, in stressing the need for issue-based campaigns, quoted former United States first lady Eleanor Roosevelt as saying: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
