Senate interrogates ministerial nominee on gaining university admission with two credits

The Senate on Monday interrogated a ministerial nominee on how he secured admission into the university with two credit passes in school certificate examination. The nominee, however, responded that he chose to exclude some certificates because the constitution provides that the qualification to contest elections, even for president, is school certificate.

Senator Allwell Onyesoh from Rivers East, had questioned the credential of Senator Bello Muhammed at the ministerial screening, seeking explanation how he was admitted into the university admission with secondary school results of no more than two credits.

Senator Allwell Onyesoh had asked: “I’ve been looking for your school cert. I saw one. You sat for five subjects with two credits.

“I don’t know how; I want to imagine that you still have another to bring. If not, I would want you to explain how you got into university with that.”

The ministerial nominee, Muhammed, told the senate that he has other secondary school results that he “all passed” but he did not attach to his CV, explaining: “because we are talking of secondary school certificate.
“I want to remind the distinguished senator which I know he very much knows that with the qualification of secondary school certificate, as enshrined in the constitution, we can stand for an election up to the presidential election.

“So, I didn’t bother you with much certificates. But I know those are the qualifications for that.”
He insisted: I “sat for another examination and I have passed but I don’t want to attach another qualification because.”

Senate President Godswill Akpabio, intervening, stated: “You are saying that you chose what to give to the Senate. You chose the qualification to bring before the Senate because of the constitutional provision that a secondary school certificate is what is required to stand for election.

“You’re not coming to stand for election; you’re coming to be a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, which are the other certificates you concealed? Which are the other certificates you did not put in your CV?”
Akpabio added: “So, you don’t choose and pick.”

The Senate President stated that the Senate would allow Muhammed some more time to bring the other certificates “to circulate, but not necessarily appealing again before us.”Thereafter, he was told to come back to the senate with all the results he excluded from his CV, because Nigerians need to know everything about their ministers.