The controversy surrounding the irregularities in the name written in the WAEC certificate presented by Atiku Abubakar to INEC in 2022 has taken a new dimension. The PDP candidate submitted a WAEC certificate to INEC bearing Siddiq Abubakar instead of Atiku Abubakar.
In trying to defend the revelation, Atiku Abubakar claimed that he is the same person as Siddiq Abubakar stating that he enrolled into Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in 1960 but before his certificate exams, he changed his name to Siddiq Abubakar and shortly after taking his senior school certificate exams ‘reverted’ back to answering Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku went further to state that he swore an affidavit to support the change of name from Siddiq to Atiku in 1973 (eight years after he purportedly wrote the senior school certificate exam as Siddiq).
Atiku’s media adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe stated in a press statement that: “It is on record that the change of name of the former Vice President reverting to Atiku Abubakar from Siddiq Abubakar is well documented in an affidavit dated 18th of August, 1973, spanning over a period of 50 years.”
However, August 18, 1973, the date Atiku claimed to have signed an affidavit in court claiming to be the same person as Siddiq Abubakar has turned out to be a Saturday. This new revelation has raised doubts about the veracity of Atiku’s defense owing to the fact that courts in Nigeria do not open for business on Saturdays and Sundays.
This new revelation may have confirmed the belief held by many Nigerians that Atiku Abubakar is using the certificate of a Siddiq Abubakar who sat and wrote the senior school certificate examination that Atiku is laying claim to.
Apart from the bizarre act of swearing an affidavit on a Saturday, the trajectory of Atiku’s story leaves a lot of unconnected dots. For example, one of Atiku Abubakar’s media aide, Dele Momodu earlier posted on the social media platform X that Atiku personally replied that he went to ABU Zaria as Atiku Abubakar and passed his exams as Atiku Abubakar to obtain a law diploma.
Momodu also said Atiku Abubakar was interviewed as Atiku Abubakar by the federal civil service commission and ‘hired into the Customs Service as Atiku Abubakar’. This raises the following further questions considering Atiku’s claim of swearing an affidavit to revert ‘his name’ on the WAEC certificate back to Atiku Abubakar happened in 1973:
1. Which WAEC certificate did Atiku Abubakar use to gain admission into the Kano School of Hygiene in 1966 where graduated the next year with a diploma. If it is the Siddiq certificate, it means his admission letter is supposed to reflect the name on the WAEC certificate he presented.
2. What name was written on the diploma he acquired from Kano School of Hygiene in 1967?
3. Which name was on WAEC certificate Atiku presented to ABU Zaria in 1967 as he enrolled for a law diploma? What name was on his admission letter and the subsequent diploma he allegedly obtained from ABU Zaria in 1969?
4. What WAEC certificate did Atiku Abubakar present to the Federal Civil Service Commission in 1969 as he sought for employment into the Nigerian Customs Service?
5. If according to Atiku Abubakar, he swore an affidavit legalising his change of name from Siddiq Abubakar to Atiku Abubakar in 1973, more than 3 years after his employment as a Customs Officer, it means he should have been bearing the name Siddiq Abubakar from at least 1965 to 1973.
From the clear loopholes in the story by Atiku Abubakar, it is becoming evident that Siddiq Abubakar was a different person from Atiku Abubakar. It is very likely that the swearing of affidavit by Atiku Abubakar on Saturday, August 18, 1973 to change the name on the WAEC certificate from Siddiq Abubakar to Atiku Abubakar was a hurried act probably to cover a possible inquiry by the Nigerian Customs service on the name discrepancies between the WAEC and diploma certificate he presented.
For the sake of transparency and accountability, it is crucial that Atiku Abubakar provides clarity to these grey areas and possibly unveil to Nigerians who the real Siddiq Abubakar is.