Ex-ABU mate lambasts Melaye over certificate crisis

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By Olusola AJIBIKE (Abeokuta)

NIGERIA: A FELLOW ex-undergraduate with the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Dino Melayo, at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna, Abdussobur Salaam‎, has lambasted the federal lawmaker.

Salaam, who is a senior staff of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, said that Melaye was being paid back over the series of blackmails he had perpetrated in the past.

The ex-student of the Senator was reacting to the controversy generated by the first degree obtained by Melaye at ABU.

According to him, the conduct of the legislators was not proper as a public figure, which led to many controversial issues he got himself involved.

Salaam, who is the National Public Relations Officer of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), gave his reaction on popular social media, Penpushing.

Salaam said that he was at ABU with Melaye at the same time, where he studied Political Science while the Senator studied Geography.

He said: “Permit me to make an intervention on the issue of Dino and ABU, having been admitted and ‘graduated’ from ABU same year as Dino.  I used the word ‘graduated’ very guardedly and with caution.

“Permit me to say that as at the time we were admitted, Geography Department was under the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS).”

Salaam stressed: “In our 200 level, the Faculty was split and Geography Department had issues of where to fit in,” he said, adding: “It was initially placed under Faculty of Arts and later shifted to Faculty of Sciences where it is presently domiciled.”

“The narrative on his certificate could be correct,” the SSANU image maker stated, while adding: “Dino and I are supposed to be ‘friends’, but differences never permitted while we were in school.”

“Till date, we communicate once in a while, but I daresay, he is the architect of his problems,” Salaam declared.

He further said: “I have spent all yesterday responding to enquiries on different platforms about Dino’s status as a graduate.  My take?  We were admitted the same year, initially into the same faculty of FASS, and given that our courses were four years, we ought to have graduated same year.

“However, recalling how studentship in ABU was that period, you could never be too sure of the academic status of any ‘student’.  What do I mean?  We had ‘students’, who were always around, attended lectures, participated in all student activities, were allocated hostel space, were always holding files and feigning academic seriousness, only for an issue to come up and you would find out that despite your having known them for years, they were never students but just lived pseudo student lives!”

Salaam, a one-time Chairman of SSANU at FUNAAB, maintained that such feign attitude of some fake students, might make it difficult for any of their colleagues to believe that they were not real students.

He declared: “If they were never discovered, twenty years time, if a controversy arose as to their status, one would swear confidently that the person graduated!

“While this is not exactly the same with Dino, you cannot be too sure until facts are unearthed.  I know for a fact that we were admitted together.  I am aware that he was very active in student political circles, though he has attempted to insinuate that he was SUG president to shore up his political profile.

“Unfortunately, during our time, under the reign of Uncle K, (General Kontagora as Sole Administrator) the student Union was proscribed, so that claim cannot stick! He lied on that!”

He further said: “As President of Geography students, I am aware that he was impeached.  I also know that he had fraud related issues with the Kogi State Students Association and Segun Halilu personally had lamented to me about this, then.

“I remember that he wanted to join the OAU students club then, and we blocked his membership, knowing his tendencies to cause confusion and take over the structure of the club for personal ends.”

He further said: “On his status as a graduate, only the records can tell. For all you know, he may have had a few unresolved carry-overs.  Knowing Dino, he may have bluffed, paid or manipulated the system to ensure those records are obliterated.

“If not, recall that given the circumstances of our year set, many concessions/ waivers were given to ensure that we graduated, having spent almost double the statutory length of years we should spend. Dino may just have been such a beneficiary of waivers. It is however not our place to tell, but the truth will unfold itself.

“As a political scientist, what I see is a class fragmentation struggle.  An in-house struggle within the elite class.  Saraki and Dino are the subjects of attack today for take over of the National Assembly.  They may get over it or it may consume them.

“However, I do not have my sympathy for him because he is also a Master in the art of subterfuge, blackmail and crude propaganda.  Today, he is a victim of the same method he has adopted over the years and I am happy to see the tables turn!

“Unfortunately, issues like this have led to the results they were meant to produce – public hysteria!  Everyone is now caught up in debates about the Dino certificate scandal (or is it Dinogate?

“Everyone includes me! Last two weeks, it was Apostle Suleiman. This week, it is Dino.  Who knows who next week will throw up?  While we dwell on personalities, and are distracted by their shenanigans, we continue to remain victims of the plots and scheming.”

Salaam also declared: “At the end of the day, things like this die off, others take their place in an endless cycle of politics of personality.  While the elite class continue to regale us with entertainment, the real problems of underdevelopment, poverty, poor infrastructure, bad governance, corruption, and other malaise remain! God help Nigeria!”

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