FACT-CHECK: Did Ebonyi Gov, Nwifuru, write SSCE as a House of Assembly member as viral post claims?

Claim: Ebonyi State governor, Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru wrote the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination as a member of the House of Assembly in 2011.

Verdict: Misleading.

Full Text:

A viral ‘biography’ of the governor of Ebonyi State, Francis Nwifuru claimed that the former senator and incumbent governor wrote his SSCE during his tenure as a senator in the state House of Assembly.

The claim about the governor has gone viral on social media platforms and blog sites with a purported picture of him with his wife and son.

The viral claim was shared on WhatsApp and also published by blogs.

Verification:

Nwifuru represented the Izzi West constituency at the Ebonyi State legislature between 2011 and 2023. The All Progressive Congress candidate was declared the winner of the state governorship in 2023 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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According to his profile on the state government website, Nwifuru is from a modest background; he “took up a menial job which was considered to be above his age, ‘a mason’. He would work in the rain and under the sun all day, mixing concrete – water, sand and cement.”

Records show that despite striving through life during his early days, Nwifuru completed his primary and secondary education from Offerekpe Agbaja Community Primary School and Community Secondary School Nwofe Agbaja between 1991 and 2004.

His profile on the state government website showed that Nwifuru furthered his education at the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, to study Building Technology and woodwork and later earned a second degree in Law at the same university. It added that he bagged a Master’s Degree in Procurement, Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the prestigious Salford University, Manchester, United Kingdom in June 2021.

However, findings show that INEC, in its 2023 final list of candidates for state elections, only indicated the educational qualifications of the state governor as “First school leaving certificate, senior school certificate and B.Sc (Bachelor of Science)”.

While Ripples Nigeria cannot immediately authenticate the credentials of the state governor, it is worthy to note that the Part 1 section C of 1999 Constitution (as amended) states that only a Nigerian citizen who has attained the age of 35 and has at least secondary school level education or equivalent can be qualified for election as a member of an House of Assembly.

So, constitutionally, Nwifuru could not have contested nor be elected as a member of the state House of Assembly without having written the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), which is an internal examination conducted for candidates in their final year of Senior Secondary School.

Conclusion:

The claim that the incumbent state governor of Ebonyi State and former lawmaker wrote his SSCE during his tenure in the state House of Assembly is misleading.

By: Quadri Yahya

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