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In the embarrassing issue of the “Certificate Saga,” as fine media prophet Woli Arole captioned it, the more of a presentation Dino Melaye makes, the more it is obvious that unlike “Eze who went to school,” Dino did not.
I take full responsibility for any legal or more-likely illegal implications of this article and shelve the publishers of any responsibility whatsoever, so sue me Dino.
Any educated or even semi-educated person who watched Dino’s putrid rambling appeal on Channels TV last week is most certainly as irritated and embarrassed as I am.
Dino Melaye may be literate but he is uneducated. Literacy is the capacity to read and write, but “being educated” is a certification of a quality of knowledge and training received.
On set, Dino appeared to annoy or frustrate Seun Okinbaloye. Apart from his dodging and then declaring not to answer the simple questions of whether or not he graduated, Dino startled the world when he decided that it was his duty to re-educate us all on what a school is. This I think was the lowest moment for Nigeria so far this 2017. A sitting senator attempting to define or re-define what the global concept of a school and graduation is!
Let me attempt to highlight the various aspects of pathetic Dino’s pathetic presentation:
Downgrade method
Firstly in the short clip I watched, Dino Melaye tried to downgrade what a tertiary institution is. He compared it to mechanic workshops and plumbers. Not sure if these give certificates now, but senator Dino Melaye said something that seemed to mean that even mechanic workshops and plumbers are certification bodies. Senator Dino Melaye appeared to wish to ridiculously lower the bar by referring to apprenticeship jobs as being similar to tertiary institutions. This is the downgrade debate method, most commonly used by toddlers.
Transposition method
The senator representing Kogi West struggled to confuse the public by deliberately mixing up a certificate with a certification. While a degree is printed as a certificate, a certification is not a degree as the senator hoped to confuse the public to not notice. It is necessary to clearly state that a certification does not in any way mean or equal a Degree or a Diploma. Study.com explains that without or within a Degree, one may obtain many certifications. Receiving a certification document from a tertiary institution does not make you a graduate of that institution but only certified in that aspect of that field learning. Only a degree or diploma makes you a graduate of an institution. The word certificate means nothing more than “a document.” “A document serving as evidence or as written testimony, as of status, qualifications, privileges, or the truth of something.”
When we ask for Dino’s certificate of graduation, we might otherwise say, where is the document of your graduation. Dino bringing out a seminar attendance certification to prove he “graduated” from Harvard is like him bringing out a National Assembly document and saying it is a degree. This is how retarded his mixup argument was.
Dino Melaye either did not know the difference between the two words or hoped it would slide without deconstruction.
Sue Me, Circumvent Method
As the interview progressed, again pressed on for an unambiguous declaration of his “graduation,” Dino Melaye said, “it is as I have put it. Sue me if you doubt it.” The sue me method relies on the hope that the challenge will not be taken up and that if it is, the court will be corrupted not to pass a true judgement. The question posed to Dino Melaye was straightforward. Did you graduate from Harvard and London Economic school as discredited and as you declared verbally and on your resume? Your constituents deserve to know. It would have been easy for the Kogi West senator to simply say, yes I did. But after dodging and dillydallying, he played the sue me card.
Obfuscation Method
As he ridiculed himself, the senator deliberately attempted to confuse. He repeatedly brought up the verb, “certificated,” which according to Dictionary.com means, “to furnish with or authorize by a certificate.” or “to issue an official certificate attesting to the training, aptitude, and qualification of.”
Dino repeatedly said, any one or institution that is “certificated for.” Honestly I cannot breakdown what he was trying to say. There is no meaning to his utterances. I have conferred with several professional minds in various fields from the sciences to English.
“Is certificated for, and he graduates from his training,” Dino said.
Macmillan dictionary helps us better use the word “certificated:” “a certificated professional person has done all the training they officially need to do. The usual American word is certified.”
So you can be certified or certificated. But you cannot be “certificated for.” Certificated only applies to the trainee and not trainer as Dino appeared to use the same phrase again as meaning in a second part of his interview as observed on obfuscation analysis: “that the program he went there to attend, whether diploma, whether degree or PhD is certificated for,” Dino said.
As Certificated means “to furnish with or authorize by a certificate.” Therefore “certificated for” will be something like: “to furnish with or authorize by a certificate for.” We know what
I am certificated/certified” means, but what does, “I am certificated for” me?
-ABU Vice Chancellor “Certificated For” Dino
It appears Dino was referring to a unique situation. His situation. The ABU Vice Chancellor had to come to the National Assembly to “certificated for” him. You are only “certificated for” when you do not have a graduation certificate and have no record of making the necessary credits to graduate, then the institution and its Vice Chancellor has to “certificated for” you on demand.
The entire process so far has brought to disrepute Nigerian tertiary institutions as a whole and the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU Zaria in particular and has also further evidenced the need to scrap the Nigerian senate, a body that has lost its role in the nation’s struggle for progress.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah; @EveryNigerian
