ELECTION 2015: The strategic significance of the Buhari certificate scandal for Nigerians in general, and for the PDP in the 2015 elections.

It would be a strategic mistake if PDP backs down on the Buhari certificate scandal for any reason.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has already been blackmailed in the Muslim North through the presence of Boko Haram, which has been presented as being his fault, while outspoken elite in the region speak from two sides of their mouths about the Islamic terrorist crisis, not seeming eager to have Jonathan crush it decisively, raising objections whenever the army is making decisive progress against the terrorists  and the Borno state governor orchestrating the Chibok sabotage by keeping the vulnerable school open against the directives of the federal government, thereby opening the door for the story of the kidnap of the students by Boko Haram, an incident painted as demonstrating the government is not taking the Boko Haram threat seriously. 

It was in the lull of combat against Boko Haram in the midst of the anti-govt storm that followed the Chibok affair that the terrorists re-emerged to occupy population centres after they had been earlier dislodged and pushed to the outskirts of Borno state.

So, if the PDP is losing sympathy in the Muslim North, as one claim holds, by holding Buhari's jugular with the certificate scandal, so be it.

The tendencies to violence that characterize the Muslim North have already surfaced in threats against Jonathan supporters in the region. 

We even need to revisit the grand oddity of a Nigerian Presidential candidate having no more than a secondary school education, if Buhari has even that, as his terminal academic training.

It is also vital that a powerful message is sent to Northern Muslim youth about the value of education, a value the region is still struggling with and which Jonathan's government has played a central role to help cultivate by opening schools there integrating Islamic and Western education, for the first time in Nigerian history.

A powerful message must also be sent to all Nigerians about the cardinal value of education, particularly in relation to the information and technological dynamism and social transformations of the modern world. 

Failure to do this will leave a deep impression negating the value of education in people's minds, a cancer Nigeria might not recover from for the next 50 years, if not more. 

A core section of the Buhari campaign platform is directed at the South, particularly the youth who were not born then or were too young to experience his dictatorial reign as head of state gained through a coup.

It is vital the PDP maximise the value of the certificate scandal to destroy Buhari's anti-corruption image.

A major mistake that President Jonathan might have made was paying attention to cries from the North on the Boko Haram crises, leading to claims that he is weak.

This is the time to press home a decisive advantage to destroy the core of Buhari's campaign, his anti-corruption drive, by demonstrating him as an embodiment of the corruption that has bedeviled this nation.

After the elections, we must revise upwards the constitutional requirements to run for the Presidency to at least a first degree.

The PDP might do well to should take Buhari to court for perjury and forgery and subpoena Cambridge on his certificate claim.