By Brave Dickson
A lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, Dr Steve Wordu has said that politicians with forged certificates lack the integrity to hold office in government.
The lecturer who said this in an interview with our correspondent described politicians with forged certificates as citizens who lack competence and character.
He said: “Certificates are statutory documents that proved that someone had been trained and that the person has capacity and competence.
“So, if there is any forgery of any kind or manipulation of that certificate, it becomes a criminal offence.
“The consequences are bad in the sense that a lot of people in Nigeria are parading forged certificates and are using them to intimidate other people.
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“So, wherever there is any case of certificate forgery, it means that the person has breached the law and such a person lacks true character.
“When you enter into governance with a forged certificate, it means you have no respect for state laws and such person is sending the wrong signal to the younger generation to do the same.
“A lot of persons have used forged certificates and succeeded but that doesn’t mean that they have been justified
“Supervising authorities like the Independent National Electoral Commission and others should take stringent measures to ensure that the identity and character of the person they are screening is authentic.
“Whosoever that forges certificate has lied on oath and should be punished because it will continue when there is no deterrence.
“Certificate forgery to a large extent affects governance because governance is based on competence and integrity.
“If a person in government lacks integrity, then it will affect everything he does in the eyes of the public.
“So, it is very difficult to separate governance from the character authenticity of the person in government.”
