Like Buhari, ex-President Jonathan says he has no certificate scandal

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has denied ever having a certificate scandal and faulted the listing of his name by a national newspaper among prominent Nigerians that have questions surrounding their academic certificate.

Jonathan’s denial is coming a day after the Presidency also refuted claims that President Muhammadu Buhari also has a certificate issue.

President Buhari, former President Jonathan and Sen Dino Melaye among others, were listed by a newspaper as prominent Nigerians who have certificate scandals around them.

However, a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by the former president’s media adviser, Mr. Ikechukwu Eze, dismissed the claim as lies and stressed that Jonathan has “never been linked to any doubt, scandal or controversy concerning his academic qualifications.”

He said, “We really don’t know where this is coming from, but we wish to remain unambiguous in our assertion that this is obvious falsehood, since the former President has never been linked to any doubt, scandal or controversy concerning his academic qualifications.

“We are not aware of any probe, allegation or litigation relating to his very well-known academic qualifications.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to restate that former President Jonathan’s educational records can easily be traced to St Michael’s Primary School, Oloibiri and Mater Dei High School, lmiringi where he obtained his first school leaving certificate and General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level respectively, as well as the University of Port Harcourt, where he received his Bachelor of Science, Master’s and Doctorate degrees.

“Luckily, many of former President Jonathan’s classmates from primary school through the university are still alive and are traceable. It is therefore obvious that there is no justification for this abstruse association, as there is nothing linking the former President to the story.”

Nonetheless, a former minister of Petroleum and Energy, Professor Tamuno David-West, had in February 2015, insinuated that Jonathan does not have a doctorate degree from the University of Port Harcourt as people were made to believe.

David-West, who made this allegation in Asari Toru, Rivers State, at a governorship rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC), avowed that all efforts to trace the thesis, for which Jonathan was awarded a Ph.D. in Zoology by the University of Port Harcourt, yielded no result.

He had said at that occasion, “I have asked and I stand here on my honour, I have asked people to look for the thesis of my brother Jonathan and they have not found it. I sent another person and said ‘If you have not found the thesis, go and look for the title’. He came back to say, Oga I no see am.

“I am not saying that he lied but I want to see. I have been a professor since 1974. If you say you have Ph.D., the least I want from you is to give me the thesis, which university and where you got it.”

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