Most ridiculous excuses African politicians have given for not having academic certificates

Tanko Muhammed, Nigeria

Nigeria’s new Chief Justice, Tanko Muhammed, said termites destroyed his primary school certificate when his home in Bauchi was invaded in 1998.

The CJN who was first sworn-in on January 25 this year as the acting CJN, after President Buhari suspended the immediate past CJN, Justice Walter Onnogen, made the claims in revelations of an affidavit circulating on social media in his name.

Muhammad, who had submitted the affidavit to the Senate to be confirmed as the head of the Supreme Court, said: “no portion of the certificate was salvaged”.

Muhammad swore the affidavit on February 13, 2002, while he was a judge at the Jos Division of the Court of Appeal. He became a Supreme Court judge in 2007. The claims said the judge criminally altered his date of birth by three years from December 31, 1950, to December 31, 1953.