By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA (PRECISE POST) – Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has warned Nigerians against excusing or normalising the use of unverified academic credentials, saying such practices pose a serious threat to the country’s standards, accountability and future.
Obi, in a strongly worded statement, said the controversy surrounding questionable or unverified academic By Making Excuses for Unverified Certificates, We Are Planting Poison in the Soul of Our Society
A nation that tolerates unverified academic credentials at any level of leadership, regardless of who is involved, risks destroying the very standards upon which a society is built. The issue is not about an individual. It is about standards, accountability, and the values we choose to pass on to the next generation.
We cannot continue to excuse blurred, missing, questionable, or unverified credentials simply because they belong to someone we support. The process through which people attain positions of responsibility matters greatly. How we get into leadership is as important as what we do with leadership.
If we normalise the abandonment of basic verification today, tomorrow we may have professors who never attended a university, doctors who never studied medicine, and judges who never studied law.
That is the dangerous precedent we must never allow. Nigeria cannot sacrifice its future on the altar of today’s transactional politics. We must build a society where truth is not partisan, standards are not negotiable, and accountability applies equally to everyone.
History will judge us not only by those we defended, but by the principles we were willing to defend. We must choose truth over convenience, standards over sentiments, and the future over political expediency.
A New Nigeria is possible, but only if we are willing to do the right thing, even when it is inconvenient. -PO should not be treated as a partisan political matter, stressing that the issue goes beyond any individual and concerns the integrity of institutions and the values being transmitted to younger generations.
According to him, “A nation that tolerates unverified academic credentials at any level of leadership, regardless of who is involved, risks destroying the very standards upon which a society is built.”
He said Nigerians must resist the temptation to defend questionable credentials merely because the individuals involved belong to their political camp or enjoy their support.
“We cannot continue to excuse blurred, missing, questionable, or unverified credentials simply because they belong to someone we support,” Obi said.
The former governor argued that the process through which individuals attain positions of responsibility is as important as their performance after assuming office.
“The process through which people attain positions of responsibility matters greatly. How we get into leadership is as important as what we do with leadership,” he stated.
Obi warned that failure to insist on proper verification of academic qualifications could gradually erode professional standards across critical sectors of society.
“If we normalise the abandonment of basic verification today, tomorrow we may have professors who never attended a university, doctors who never studied medicine, and judges who never studied law,” he cautioned.
He described such a development as a dangerous precedent that Nigeria must avoid, arguing that the country’s future should not be sacrificed because of short-term political interests.
“That is the dangerous precedent we must never allow. Nigeria cannot sacrifice its future on the altar of today’s transactional politics,” Obi said.
He called for a society in which truth and accountability are applied without political, ethnic or partisan considerations.
“We must build a society where truth is not partisan, standards are not negotiable, and accountability applies equally to everyone,” he added.
Obi further said history would ultimately judge Nigerians not only by the individuals they defended, but also by the principles they chose to uphold.
“History will judge us not only by those we defended, but by the principles we were willing to defend. We must choose truth over convenience, standards over sentiments, and the future over political expediency,” he said.
He maintained that the emergence of a better Nigeria would depend on citizens’ willingness to uphold the right principles even when doing so is politically or personally inconvenient.
“A New Nigeria is possible, but only if we are willing to do the right thing, even when it is inconvenient,” Obi declared.
