There are always some hurdles to cross after winning a gubernatorial election in Nigeria. For returning Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, it is the objection of his old ally, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to his educational qualifications. After battling his detractors in court over the originality of his university certificate, Obaseki has come out victorious.
Governor Godwin Obaseki has demonstrated yet again that he possesses more karmic luck compared to the entire league of his detractors, APC and its members included. Relying on nothing but the University of Ibadan (UI) itself to find out the truth, Obaseki’s lot has emerged on the right side of things.
According to a legal representative from UI, the certificate under question (Bachelor of Arts) was indeed issued to Obaseki by the university in 1979 and is consequently not a forgery.
Recall that it was one Williams Edobor, a chieftain of APC, who filed a suit against Obaseki immediately after the latter won the Edo gubernatorial election, accusing him of submitting a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). If Edobor’s gambit had struck true, Obaseki’s initial gubernatorial victory would have been annulled, the return governorship certificate returned, and the runner-up, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the APC, would have been sworn in as Edo State governor.
It may be said that the APC went all out in their efforts to shove Obaseki out of power. Witnesses emerged from the blues in droves to claim that they had never seen Obaseki’s original academic certificate. It got so rowdy in the courthouse that the trial judge, Ahmed Mohammed, had to push the case onto the shoulders of UI, essentially stating that it had become a headache for the academic court.
And now the academic court has resolved that it was all due to a slight error; that Obaseki’s certificate is not at all forged, but the result of a faulty photocopier. Thus, was the Edo chapter of the APC clobbered to submission by a faulty photocopier. Thus, was Governor Godwin Obaseki victorious again.
