WAEC Ghana Office Clarifies its position on Buhari’s Certificate saga in an advertorial in page 92 of yesterday’s Guardian Newspaper {10-02-15}.
The Ghana National Office of WAEC released a press statement of the Certificate of General Buhari who is contesting at the Nigerian Presidential Election scheduled to hold on the 28th of March 2015.
A Civil Society organisation, MoveOn Nigeria had earlier written a letter to the Ghana regional office of WAEC. A response had been provided indicating that they did not have Buhari’s records. MoveOn Nigeria had then gone ahead to claim that WAEC had denied the existence of Buhari’s records.
The WAEC’s Statement below refutes that claim and provides more Clarity
The attention of the Ghana National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has been drawn to a publication which appeared on the front page of The Union newspaper edition of Thursday, January 29th 2015 under the above-stated
caption, and the interpretations given to it in the press and social media. Displayed in the publication where copies of the correspondence between WAEC Ghana and Moveon Nigeria, a civil society organisation based in Nigeria, concerning the
examination records of one “mohamed or Muhammadu Buhari” who we were informed was a candidate at Provincial secondary school, Katsina in the examination conducted by WAEC in 1961.
In View of the discussions generated by the publishing of our simple routing response to Moveon Nigeria, we feel constrained to provide clarification on the matter for the benefit of stakeholders and the general public in Nigeria. Though our response
that the certified true copy of the examination records of Mohamed Buhari could not be provided from the Ghana National Office was correct, it was not intended to indicate the existence or otherwise of the candidate’s examination records, or to foreclose further search
by the enquirer at a more appropriate location within the council.
WAEC is a Sub-regional organisation estabilshed in 1952 with a tripartite mandate to identify the examinations required in the public interest in the English speaking west African countries, to conduct the examinations and to award
certificates of international standard to deserving candidates. Currently, there are five member countries of WAEC- The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The Headquarters is in Ghana, but in each member country, including Ghana, the council has
established a Nationa Office that takes charge of its assets and operations in that particular country. Consequently, the Council’s information storage and retrieval system is highly decentralised, as records of candidates who sat the council’s examination in a particular
country are kept int he country’s natinal office. A candidate’s results may be confirmed or verified to any institution or body if WAEC is so requested in an application by the candidate, an institution or body.
In the case of Mohamed Buhari therefore, it was impossible for the Ghana National Office to make available certified true copy of his examination records, since his school or examination centre (provincial Secondary School, Katsina)
falls within the jurisdiction of the Nigeria National Office.
Following from the above, the Nigerian National Office is the appropriate National Office of WAEC to confirm of verify the examination records of Mohamed Buhari who is reported by MoveOn Nigeria to have sat WAEC examination at provincial Secondary School, Katsina in 1961
Agnes Teye- Cudjoe (Mrs.)
Head Public Affiars
For: Head of Ghana National Office