As political parties commence campaigns ahead of the presidential election scheduled for January, former Senate Leader and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ali Ndume, has advised opposition party chieftains to focus on issues that will sell their candidates rather than engage in smear campaigns targeted at the incumbent President and candidate of the ruling party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Ndume gave the admonition on Monday in a press statement issued to journalists in Abuja.

Checks revealed that some opposition figures have raised concerns over the academic credentials of the APC candidate, particularly the omission of the primary and secondary schools he attended.

Further checks revealed that in the Form EC9 submitted by President Tinubu, the spaces provided for primary and secondary school qualifications under the educational qualifications section were left blank, while he listed a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Business Administration obtained from Chicago State University, United States, in 1979.

The APC presidential candidate, however, attached copies of his Bachelor of Science degree certificate and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate as part of the supporting documents accompanying his nomination papers.

The lawmaker representing Borno State maintained that Tinubu had fulfilled the constitutional requirements for the office and dismissed the insinuation that his secondary school certificate ought to have been attached as a non-issue.

Citing Section 131(d) of the 1999 Constitution, the former Senate Leader submitted that “the Constitution only establishes a minimum educational threshold, but it does not insist on the particularity of a secondary school certificate as the only means by which that threshold can be met.”

He quoted the relevant provision, which states: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of the President if—

(d) he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.”

The lawmaker maintained that the focus should be on Tinubu’s policies and performance as a sitting president, rather than his eligibility for the office, which he noted had been settled through litigation arising from the 2023 presidential election.

He said: “The narrative around his certificate, in my opinion, is distracting.

“What opposition parties’ presidential candidates and their spokespersons should focus on are their alternative economic policies, if they have any.

“What can they do better than President Tinubu?

“They should come out and tell Nigerians.

“It is his economic policies and how his administration has been able to tackle insecurity with landmark success that they should try and interrogate.

“He has been in office for over three years now. So, how can the narrative around his certificates be the focus of his challengers?

“I think as we progress in the campaigns, the opposition should elevate the discourse beyond the mundane.

“As Eleanor Roosevelt noted, great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”