NIGERIA — Former Anambra State governor and Nigerian Democratic Congress presidential candidate for 2027, Peter Obi, has warned against the growing tendency to excuse unverified or questionable academic credentials, saying such practices could undermine Nigeria’s institutional standards and damage public trust.
H.E Mr Peter Gregory Obi at H.E Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s 2026 GJF Democracy Dialogue Summit/Lecture held in Bauchi state.
Obi made the remarks in a statement on Wednesday while stressing that the issue should not be viewed through the lens of political allegiance or the identity of the individual involved.
According to him, a society that tolerates unverified academic credentials at any level of leadership risks weakening the standards upon which its institutions are built.
He said the matter was fundamentally about standards, accountability, and the values being passed on to future generations, rather than about protecting or attacking any particular individual.
H.E Mr Peter Gregory Obi at H.E Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s 2026 GJF Democracy Dialogue Summit/Lecture held in Bauchi state.
“We cannot continue to excuse blurred, missing, questionable, or unverified credentials simply because they belong to someone we support,” Obi said.
He argued that the process through which individuals attain positions of responsibility is as important as what they eventually do in those positions.
“How we get into leadership is as important as what we do with leadership,” he stated.
Obi warned that normalising the abandonment of basic verification could create a dangerous precedent in which professional and academic qualifications become increasingly detached from established standards.
“If we normalise the abandonment of basic verification today, tomorrow we may have professors who never attended a university, doctors who never studied medicine, and judges who never studied law,” he warned.
He therefore urged Nigerians to reject what he described as transactional politics and insist on standards that apply equally to everyone, regardless of political affiliation or personal loyalty.
According to him, Nigeria must not sacrifice its long-term institutional integrity for short-term political interests.
“We must build a society where truth is not partisan, standards are not negotiable, and accountability applies equally to everyone,” he said.
Obi added that history would judge society not only by the individuals it defended but also by the principles it was prepared to uphold.
“We must choose truth over convenience, standards over sentiments, and the future over political expediency,” he said.
He concluded by expressing optimism that a better Nigeria remains possible, but stressed that achieving it would require citizens and leaders to uphold the right principles even when doing so is politically inconvenient.
“A New Nigeria is possible, but only if we are willing to do the right thing, even when it is inconvenient,” Obi said.
