Bill Proposing HND for Presidential Candidate : Is Atiku Abubakar Out Of 2023 Race ?

Despite his long struggle even to the point of challenging the result of the 2019 presidential election to the Supreme Court which upheld the result as announced by INEC, it appears former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has come to the end of the road in his quest to become Nigeria’s president.

By George Emine and Lateef Bamgbose

In what appears as the proverbial hen coming home to roost, Atiku Abubakar who contested the result of the 2019 presidential election among other things, on the ground of President Muhammadu Buhari not being academically qualified to contest, may have his ambition of ever becoming Nigeria’s president dashed for lack of educational qualification.
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar’s ambition of contesting the 2023 is hanging in the balance as the Senate has a bill which proposes Higher National Diploma, HND certificate as minimum qualification for presidential aspirants has passed second reading. The bill, sponsored by Senator Istifanus Gyang (Plateau North), also proposes National Diploma, ND certificate as the qualification for anyone seeking to be elected as governor and National Assembly members.
The bill was titled: “A Bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to provide for the amendment of Sections 65 (2) (a), 131 (d), Section 106 (c) and Section 177 (d) therein, to provide for minimum qualification for election into the National and States Assembly, Office of the President and Governors, and other related matters, 2020.” The proposed legislation seeks to alter Section 131 (d), which specifies minimum requirements for election into the office of the president.
Section 131 (d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) states that a person seeking the office of the President must have been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.
Vice President Atiku, who was vice president to former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 has a diploma in hygiene and in Law.
According to Wikipedia, Atiku’s father was opposed to the idea of Western education and tried to keep Atiku Abubakar out of the traditional school system. When the government discovered that Abubakar was not attending mandatory schooling, his father spent a few days in jail until the fine was paid. At the age of eight, Abubakar enrolled in the Jada Primary School, Adamawa.
In 1960, he was admitted to Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in Yola where he did well in English Language and Literature in English, struggled with Physics and Chemistry and Mathematics. He graduated with a Grade Three WASSCE/GCE Certificate in 1965.
Following secondary school, Abubakar studied a short while at the Nigeria Police College in Kaduna. He left the College when he was unable to present an O-Level Mathematics result. He worked briefly as a Tax Officer in the regional Ministry of Finance, from where he gained admission to the school of Hygiene in Kano in 1966. He graduated with a Diploma in 1967, having served as Interim Student Union President at the school.
In 1967 he enrolled for a Law Diploma at the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration, on a scholarship from the regional government. After graduation in 1969, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was employed by the Nigeria Customs Service.
Abubakar’s first attempt at the presidency was in 1992 when he launched a bid for the presidency of Nigeria on the platform of the Social Democratic Party. He was unsuccessful, coming third in the convention primaries, losing to MKO Abiola and runner up Babagana Kingibe.
His foray into politics was in the early 1980s, when he worked behind-the-scenes on the governorship campaign of Bamanga Tukur, who at that time was Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority. He canvassed for votes on behalf of Tukur, and also donated to the campaign. Towards the end of his Customs career, he met Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who had been second-in-command of the military government that ruled Nigeria between 1976 and 1979. Abubakar was drawn by Yar’Adua into the political meetings that were now happening regularly in Yar’Adua’s Lagos home. In 1989, he was elected a National Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Front of Nigeria, the political association led by Yar’Adua, to participate in the transition programme initiated by Head of State Ibrahim Babangida. The Peoples Front of Nigeria included politicians such as Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Babalola Borishade, Bola Tinubu, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Rabiu Kwankwaso , Dapo Sarumi and Sabo Bakin Zuwo.
Abubakar won a seat to represent his constituency at the 1989 Constituent Assembly, set up to decide a new constitution for Nigeria. The People’s Front was eventually denied registration by the government (none of the groups that applied was registered), and found a place within the Social Democratic Party, one of the two parties decreed into existence by the regime.
On September 1, 1990, Abubakar announced his Gongola State gubernatorial bid. A year later, before the elections could hold, Gongola State was broken up into Adamawa and Taraba States by the Federal Government. Abubakar fell into the new Adamawa State. After the contest he won the SDP primary election in November 1991, but was soon disqualified by the government from contesting the elections.
During the Sani Abacha transition, he showed interest to contest under the United Nigeria Congress Party; the transition programme came to an end with the death of General Abacha. In 1998, Abubakar launched a bid for the governorship of Adamawa State on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party. He won the December 1998 elections, but before he could be sworn in he accepted a position as the running mate to the People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, former Head of State Olusegun Obasanjo.
Abubakar was sworn in as Vice-President on May 29, 1999 until 2007.
In 2006 Abubakar was chosen as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress, AC, but when the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC released the final list of 24 aspirants for the presidential election, his name was missing from the ballot. INEC issued a statement stating that Abubakar’s name was missing because he was on a list of persons indicted for corruption by a panel set up by the government. Abubakar headed to the courts to have his disqualification overturned, and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on April 16, that INEC had no power to disqualify candidates.
The results put Atiku Abubakar in third place, behind PDP candidate Umaru Yar’Adua and ANPP candidate Muhammadu Buhari. Following the 2007 elections, Abubakar returned to the People’s Democratic Party contesting for the Presidential ticket of his party alongside President Jonathan and Sarah Jubril, and losing the primary to President Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2014, Atiku Abubakar left the PDP to join APC with the intent of contesting the Nigerian presidency in 2015 on the party’s platform. He eventually announced his exit from the APC which he helped to form to return to the PDP under which party he contested against President Muhamadu Buhari, losing to him on the February 27, 2019, presidential election.
But all these effort seems on the verge of waste as the bill has already passed second reading and according to Shuna Fakum, a public affairs analyst, “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar cannot get an HND before the end of 2023 because the certificates he has are Ordinary Diploma, lower than the National Diploma certificate, so even if he is able to get admission into any polytechnic, he will spend at least three years to get the HND. In fact, ordinarily Nigerian polytechnics will not offer him admission to study for an HND with an Ordinary Diploma certificate.”