The second term bid of Christopher Iziguzo, the immediate past President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists appears to have been facing fierce opposition on account of a catalogue of allegations being slammed against him by relevant stakeholders within and outside the constituency of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. The leading opposition to the second term bid of Iziguzo as NUJ President might not be unconnected with allegations of forged certificate which has been haunting him shortly before his first tenure emergence as NUJ President and other allegations of unwholesome interference in the affairs of some state NUJ Councils affairs, particularly the Benue and Enugu NUJ Councils with an ulterior motive of distorting NUJ Constitution to his advantage.

It will be recalled that the National Industrial Court sitting in Makurdi had sometime in July this year, nullified the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Council election in Benue.

The Court presided over by Justice I.J, Essien, also ordered the arrest of the NUJ National President, Chris Isiguzo, and three other national officers for contempt of court.

The court ordered for arrest of the NUJ National Secretary, Leman Shuaib, and the Vice President Zone D, Mr Wilson Bako.

Orduen Dura of the State Information chapel had dragged the Union before the Court seeking, interpretation on whether the National Secretariat of the NUJ had the right to violate its constitution by qualifying candidates that had been disqualified by its Credentials Committee.

Dura had informed the court that while undergoing screening for the council polls, Bemdoo Ugber of Radio Benue, Terna Umah of the NTA chapels did not meet the 50 percent attendance requirement and were disqualified by the committee but their disqualifications were upturned by the Iziguzo-led national body of the NUJ.

The petitioner, therefore, approached the court seeking for an injunction to put the election that had been slated for July 3 on hold pending the determination of the matter before it.

The injunction was granted on July 2 and service effected on the Acting Chairman of the NUJ Benue council, Mr Martin’s Kajo at the venue of the election.

Not withstanding the court order stopping the conduct of the polls, the credentials committee, headed by Mr Chris Apuu ,went ahead to conduct the elections.

On account of the obvious disregard to court order, Counsel for Dura, Mr R.I. Wombo prayed the court to commit to prison all the respondents including Vice President Zone D and all those that emerged as leaders at that election.

Justice Essien therefore, ordered Mr Bemdoo Ugber, the purported winner of the chairmanship position and other winners in that election to hand over any property of the union in their possession to the Interim Caretaker Committee led by Mr Steven Ijoh.

The judge also ordered them to stop parading themselves as executives of the union.

Similarly, aggrieved members in Enugu NUJ are also accusing the Iziguzo-led NUJ of meddling in the affairs of the Council by way of imposing stooges unpopular preferred of Iziguzo candidates on the Council. In the same breath, the Council during a protest match recently also requested Iziguzo to clear the air on the authentication of his academic certificates which has been a subject of doubths since his emergence as NUJ President.

In a seeming alignment with the position of Iziguo’s opponents, a leading international media agency – Intrnational Centre For Investigative Reporting ICIR had unequivocally narrated in its report how Iziguzo forged its academic credentials.

Below is the full report of ICIR on Iziguzo’s alleged forged certificate scandal published shortly before the sixth triennial conference of the Nigeria Union of Journalists held in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital on October 2nd, 2018.

CONFIRMED: Isiguzo, NUJ presidential aspirant, forged his certificates

AS the sixth triennial conference of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, draws closer, The ICIR can confirm that Christopher Isiguzo, one of the seven presidential hopefuls and two-time union vice president, forged at least two of his certificates.

Isiguzo, whose campaign is one of the most prominent, has been for weeks enmeshed in a certificate forgery scandal. In a petition to the NUJ Credentials Committee obtained by TheCable, Ngozi Agbo, an Enugu-based journalist, accused him of not possessing any higher educational qualifications.

“Contrary to what was published by the committee, the said Mr Isiguzo does not possess any educational qualification,” Agbo wrote.

She also said the candidate’s qualifications and eligibility for national office are presently contested at the National Industrial Court, Enugu. According to her, rather than tender his certificate, Isiguzo has instead been attempting to frustrate the case with delay.

In its reply to the petition, dated August 28, the committee had said it found no substance in the allegations and upheld the clearance issued to the candidate. It also said Isiguzo’s candidacy was approved on the basis of a “National Diploma Certificate in Mass Communication obtained from the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, dated 31st December 1998.”

Speaking to Sahara Reporters, Garba Dahiru, chairman of the committee, said Isiguzo did not tender an HND for clearance, and added that the burden of proof is on the petitioner to provide evidence that his national diploma is not authentic.

Isiguzo disowns published certificates, but…

Isiguzo also has insisted that he is not the owner of the certificates published in TheCable.

“I wonder where they got the certificate they published. Those certificates are not mine,” Isiguzo has said about the two contested certificates: a Higher National Diploma from Federal Polytechnic, Oko, issued in 1998, and a diploma in public administration from Hyles-Anderson College obtained in the same year.

TheCable had identified certain irregularities in the documents, including the impossibility of getting two diplomas and a higher national diploma in the August, November and December of the same year. But according to Isiguzo, the only certificate he presented to the NUJ is a National Diploma in Mass Communication.

“I didn’t present any HND certificate,” he said. “If you go to the clearance committee, there is no place in my document that they wrote HND. Those that feel that we are gaining ground in this election are determined to smear us.”

He also denied any relationship with the published certificates “because my name is ‘Christopher Isiguzo’ and the name written on the certificate is ‘Christopher Isiguzoro.’”

The ICIR has however been able to confirm that Isiguzo’s claim is false. Though he may not have not submitted the certificates to the NUJ Credentials Committee, an investigation has revealed that the forged documents were among those he submitted to ThisDay newspaper, where he is presently the South East Bureau Chief.

The revelation concerning Isiguzo’s diploma from Hyles-Anderson College, a Bible college located in Indiana, United States (U.S.), raises several questions. Perhaps the most obvious is that the college does not offer a course in Public Administration which Isiguzo claimed to have studied.

While there are Bible Diploma, Missionary Wife Diploma, General Studies Diploma, Associate of Science Diploma in Education and Associate of Science Diploma in Marriage and Motherhood, there is no diploma in public administration or anything related to the course listed on the college website.

Also, while the certificate claims to have been signed by the Rector and Registrar, a look at the college’s administration team shows that none of those designations exists in the institution. Rather the offices operated by the college include Chancellor, President, Academic Dean and Director of Admissions.

In addition,  colleges in the United States do not write a graduate’s grade as “2nd class” on certificates as Isiguzo’s shows.  This is because the U.S. is one of few countries in the world where Latin honours are used. According to the American Public University System (APUS) student handbook, awarding Latin honour designations is standard practice across universities in the country. It also says: “Latin Honors are not posted on official transcripts but will be displayed on your diploma.”

Under this classification system, Summa Cum Laude, not First Class, is used for the grade point of 3.9 and above. Magna Cum Laude is used for points between 3.7 and 3.8, and Cum Laude for points between 3.5 and 3.6. These terms are considered as high honours and are written on certificates. Anyone with a grade point average lower than 3.5 will not have anything written on their certificate to indicate the point.

The HND certificate, which supposedly originates from the Federal Polytechnic Oko, also is a suspect. Compared with another notification of result from the institution issued in 2002 for a 1999 graduate, there are clear contradictions in the font, style, heading, recipient address underline, and page border thickness.

The most striking contrast, however, is in the stamps used. In the latter document, we find that the words “Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra state…” are written in a cursive font, and the stamp has no border lines. But in Isikugo’s certificate, not only are there two border lines, the font is different and in upper case and the stamp belongs to another university entirely: Anambra State Polytechnic, located in the same state as Federal Polytechnic, Oko.

The certificate is fraudulent, replies Hyles-Anderson 

The management of Hyles-Anderson college has confirmed to The ICIR that indeed the diploma in public administration is not authentic.

Replying to an emailed enquiry, John Wilkerson, Pastor and Chancellor of the college, said while the document contains the institution’s name, address, and crest, it was not issued by them.

“Neither do the names upon it represent any officiants or graduates of our college,” he added. “We do not issue degrees in public administration and we do not utilize the term, ‘rector.’ Thank you.”

In a second mail, David Stubblefield, the college’s Academic Dean, also confirmed that “Christopher Isiguro is not a graduate of any program” from the school.

Who is Ikechukwu Isiguzoro?

One of Isiguzo’s most convincing defences is that the published certificates could not have been his because while his name is Christopher Isiguzo, “the name written on the certificate is ‘Christopher Isiguzoro’” — though what is truly on the documents is “Isinguzoro”.

But checks have revealed that, though not common usage, these names have been attributed to the ThisDay journalist in the past, long before the scandal broke out.

In this news report of August 3 by Steve Oko, where the Abia State Council of the NUJ was said to have secured nomination form for Isiguzo, his name was stated in four places as “Isiguzoro”.

Another story by The Tide, published in November 2014, announcing John Emejor as the NUJ Abia State Council Chairman, reported Isiguzo’s name as “Ikechukwu Isinguzoro”.

Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic?

The ICIR‘s investigation also revealed that Isiguzo has identified himself as someone he is not in other domains. A visit to his Facebook account shows that he also inaccurately refers to himself as “Isiguzo Christopher Cfr” — in other words, Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic. This is not only very unlikely, but it is also punishable under the law if inaccurate.

Though all citizens of Nigeria are eligible to be appointed, past awardees mostly include traditional ruler and security chiefs; and no more than twenty persons may be conferred the rank each year.

According to section 2 of the National Honours Act, if a person is not entitled to a particular rank or honour and then “uses a designation or abbreviation specified by the warrant in respect of the honour or rank or a description so nearly resembling such a designation or abbreviation as to be likely to deceive …”, he shall be sentenced to imprisonment for six months or ordered to pay a fine, or both.”

It will be recalled that Christopher Iziguzo had in 2018 won the Presidency of NUJ with a narrow margin of 346 votes compared to the incumbent’s Odusile Waheed’s 329 votes.