By Adeolu Akande
I just read the suit filed against Senator Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke, the flagbearer of PDP in the Osun State gubernatorial election. The plaintiffs are asking the court to disqualify him from the ballot. Their reason is that he lacks requisite WAEC certificate as listed by the constitution.
Reminds me of a story Baba Adedibu told me about elections and requisite qualifications. Many candidates had approached him for support in a particular election. Then, a candidate came, and on scrutiny, it was disciveref that he left secondary school in form four and presented what is widely called an “S-75″ Certificate.
According to Adedibu:” When we told him that his S-75 fell short of WAEC requirement, he said, ” Baami, e ba n fiyoku kun” (Baba, help me add the remaining).
Adedibu, who had a somewhat unusual pastime of studying Nigerian Law Reports, then argued,” if a candidate has F9 in all subjects, what do you want to dispute in court if you challenge his result? INEC does not ask for five credits”.
Some time ago, some plaintiffs in an election matter caused a stir in Niger State. They produced a fake obituary poster for a chairmanship candidate listing his 84 children. When the candidate protested that he was not dead, they retorted that they knew he was alive but only wanted the electorate to know that the candidate had 84 children to feed from the monthly allocation of the local government. I suspect that is what this Osun case is all about.
