Uchechukwu Okoroafor, Abuja
The dispute over the identity and academic records of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has captured the imagination of the world who are wondering why Nigeria with international reputation in academic laurels around the world is saddled with a president who academic records has become an embarrassment not only to Nigeria but also Africa as a whole. Apparently piqued by this uncomfortable situation and wanting an end to the mockery of Nigeria and Nigerians around the world the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, called on President Bola Tinubu to save Nigeria and himself from what he described as “protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety” over the controversy surrounding his certificate.
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He was speaking in light of what has transpired recently where a US court ordered the Chicago State University (CSU) to release the President’s academic records at the request of the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Obi asked President Tinubu to again, tell Nigerians the schools he attended and if he participated in the one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. He also asked him to clarify if he indeed changed his name at any time and save the country from what he called an international embarrassment of identity crisis.
“In my opinion, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu should have saved the nation and himself this protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety. Chief Ahmed Bola Tinubu still owes the nation and the world an obligation only he can discharge.
“I therefore respectfully and humbly call on him to immediately perform a simple task once and for all. He should introduce himself to the nation he governs and to the world to avoid further doubt.
“He should let the world know his name, nationality, place of birth, parentage, primary and secondary schools attended with dates, as well as the actual universities attended and certificates obtained. He should indicate clearly where and when he did his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). “In addition, if at any time he had a change of name, he should state it clearly. “Mr. Tinubu should tell the nation his true name, the school he attended, where he served, and the certificate he obtained. He must do this task once and now,” Obi said.
According to Obi, the entire Chicago State University matter as well as “Tinubu’s many other lingering identity question marks have further worsened Nigeria’s less-than-glorious image internationally.” He said that uninformed outsiders now see every Nigerian as a fraudster, certificate forger, or identity thief, adding that the controversy is unnecessary, just as the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided. He maintained that, having occupied the highest political office in the country, President Tinubu no longer has a right to any privacy regarding his identity.
Atiku had requested the release of President Tinubu’s certificate from the Chicago State University over the suspicion that the certificate the former Lagos State governor submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may not be authentic. During a press conference last week after the President’s academic records were released to him, the former Vice President, who is challenging Tinubu’s election, called on Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and other Nigerians to join his quest for justice over the matter. Atiku also vowed not to stop on the issue, saying he would continue to seek justice over the matter.
Recall that recently, it was confirmed that President Bola Tinubu presented a forged degree certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when he filed his paperwork to lead Nigeria in June 2022, based on the testimony of the institution he arrogated, introducing a new but potentially fatal front in the ongoing battle to oust the Nigerian leader for his documented misdeeds from years gone by.
The official repudiation of Tinubu’s certificate—the only academic qualification he presented to the electoral office—came at the deposition of school officials in Chicago. Caleb Westberg, the registrar at Chicago State University, said Tinubu’s certificate, dated June 22, 1979, and tendered to INEC on June 17, 2022, was not issued by the school, and its administrators could, therefore, not be able to authenticate its source. Mr. Westberg, CSU’s registrar since November 2020, also said during the deposition that Tinubu did not apply for a replacement certificate, nor was he ever issued one. The categorical statement capped a successful outcome for the monthslong legal strategy of Atiku Abubakar, who approached the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of the document.
Federal district judge Nancy Maldonado granted a final order for CSU administrators to turn over all documents relating to Tinubu to the school and also sit down for deposition by an adversarial team of lawyers deployed by Atiku Abubakar. Tinubu, sensing the intractable consequences of the proceeding, vigorously fought to thwart its successful outcome, with his lawyers warning the judge in a September 21 hearing that releasing the documents with deposition would inevitably inflict severe, irreparable harm against the Nigerian president. The school had long insisted that Tinubu was its student, entering in 1977 and graduating in 1979, but its inability to authenticate the certificate the Nigerian president submitted would ripple through Nigeria’s over 200 million population for the foreseeable future. Previously, in 1999, Tinubu had lied under oath when he ran for governor of Lagos, claiming he obtained a degree from the prestigious University of Chicago. However, he managed to escape being held accountable for the breach because he had been elected before it was discovered, and he did not submit a certificate backing his claim, only an affidavit that was later found to be fiction, and the Nigerian Supreme Court said he could not be charged with crimes as a serving governor. He subsequently stopped claiming attendance at the University of Chicago, holding on instead to a claim that he attended Chicago State University.
Shortly after the school dumped the records into the electronic filing portal used by lawyers to all parties, Tinubu’s team circulated a misrepresented account of the documents; successfully misleading some media outlets to run a claim that the school had authenticated Tinubu’s certificate. The latest development could all but mark a putative end to his presidency due to the constitutional proscription against the submission of a fake certificate to the electoral office. Section 137 (1)(j) of the Nigerian Constitution (amended in 2010) specifically stated that no one would be legitimately elected president of Nigeria if the person “has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
The records obtained from the school, the deposition, and other material collected through the U.S. legal system have been submitted to the Supreme Court, where a final decision on the presidential election challenge would be made. However, even before the Supreme Court verdict, Peter Obi is calling out Tinubu to come clean on his certificate scandal because it has brought international embarrassment to the country. And the embarrassment would even get worse for Nigerians and Nigeria by October, when the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) promised to release 2,500 pages of potentially ‘harmful’ information on Bola Tinubu in their database. The FBI is not alone. The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the United States Department, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Drug Enforcement Administration have all indicated readiness to turn over thousands of pages of Bola Tinubu-related records.
Obi, apparently aware of how all these would be perceived by the world, is thus asking Tinubu not to be hiding in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, but to talk to Nigerians about the doubts over his identity, academic records, parentage, where he was born, and schools attended with dates, among others. He said that this matter is not one to be delegated to any of his spokespersons. He has to talk to Nigerians directly without a surrogate. Tinubu should heed the call and talk to the people he claimed voted for him in the February 25, 2023, presidential election, or he may choose to ignore and disregard them as he did during presidential debates at the runup to the elections.