APC chieftain Alwan Hassan has dismissed academic qualifications as a measure of leadership ability, arguing on Channels Television that the PhD of former President Goodluck Jonathan and the university degree of Peter Obi have produced no meaningful transformation for Nigeria, while defending President Tinubu against allegations about his academic records.
Got a PhD? A BSc? According to one APC chieftain, that and N100 won’t fix Nigeria’s roads.
Alwan Hassan, an APC chieftain, took aim at the opposition’s focus on President Bola Tinubu’s academic credentials during an appearance on PM News, arguing that certificates have never been the measure of effective governance — and that the opposition’s own academic qualifications prove his point.
“Tell me what Jonathan’s PhD has done to Nigeria. Tell me how Obi’s degree (BSc) has helped improve his communication skills. Tell me what it has done to Atiku to help him navigate and know the time to contest or when to concede for the best person of the time,” Hassan said, sweeping aside three of Nigeria’s most prominent opposition figures in one breath.
The APC member argued that leadership must be judged on performance and results rather than paper qualifications, accusing the opposition of retreating into certificate debates precisely because they lack substantive criticism of the Tinubu administration’s record.
On the controversy surrounding Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University, Hassan was equally direct. “There is nowhere that Chicago State University says the certificate President Tinubu submitted to INEC is forged,” he stated, adding that the Nigerian constitution’s requirement of “a school certificate or its equivalent” is broad enough to cover basic literacy. “An equivalent of a school certificate is the ability to read and write,” he said.
As reported by PM News, Hassan’s remarks reflect the ruling party’s broader strategy of redirecting the governance conversation away from credential debates and toward what it frames as a results-based assessment of leadership.
The opposition has not formally responded to Hassan’s specific remarks. The debate over Tinubu’s academic background has been a recurring flashpoint in Nigerian political discourse since the 2023 presidential campaign.
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