…As Atiku describes report as jaundiced
…Obi demands Tinubu speak up, save Nigeria from embarrassment
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has said there is no evidence that President Bola Tinubu forged his Chicago State University’s academic records.
The BBC made this known on Wednesday in a report by its BBC’s Global Disinformation Team.
Recall that a United States magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, ordered CSU to release Tinubu’s academic records to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. This has left Nigerians with agitation as to whether the result was forged based on some gaps.
In the wake of this, CSU’s registrar, Caleb Westberg, did not fault the president’s certificate. But he said the copy tendered before the nation’s electoral body did not emanate from the institution.
According to the BBC’s findings, the Social Security Number in the transcript from the Chicago varsity matched what it had in other documents in which Tinubu’s gender was marked as male.
The released documents raised questions about Tinubu’s birth date and his secondary school.
One of the documents disclosed that Tinubu attended Government College Lagos in 1970. But the information available on the school website states that it was only established in 1974.
BBC also reported that apart from the gender discrepancy, the birth dates in some of the released documents did not match the official birth date of Tinubu, which is March 29, 1952.
According to it, Tinubu’s transcript from the CSU has his date of birth as March 29, 1954. However, his undergraduate admissions application form had his date of birth as March 29, 1955.
Meanwhile, the BBC report claimed that Atiku’s lawyer questioned the date of birth on the certificate during Westberg’s deposition on the forms submitted to INEC. He did because Tinubu was said to have given his date of birth as March 29, 1952.
Westberg, during cross-examination, the report said, responded that the discrepancies could have been due to a human error.
“Mr Westerberg said that the school could authenticate this particular diploma because it was still in its possession,” it stated.
BBC said it contacted CSU with questions on the diplomas and it referred to the statement that read in part, “We are confident and always have been in the veracity and integrity of our records regarding Tinubu’s attendance and completion of graduation requirements.”
Special Assistant on Public Communications, to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Mr Phrank Shaibu, has said the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, erred in its ‘fact-check’ report claiming that there was no evidence that President Bola Tinubu forged his Chicago State University certificate.
Shaibu, in a statement in Abuja, on Wednesday, alleged that the report was part of “a hatchet job,” aimed at turning the tide in Tinubu’s favour adding that, “the outrage it had solicited from the generality of Nigerians was enough evidence to show that the BBC goofed.”
The Atiku aide said the BBC’s move was not surprising as it was in line with a previous statement he had issued wherein he had revealed that the Tinubu administration was set to unleash its full propaganda programme.
Shaibu said, “Sometime last week when the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) issued a final warning to Arise News TV, we pointed out that the Tinubu administration was on the verge of launching a full-blown propaganda and also intimidating ‘uncooperative’ media houses into discrediting and downplaying the CSU scandal. Sadly, we never imagined that it would be the BBC that would become the willing tool.
“It is unconscionable, appalling and preposterous that in this current information age, a foreign medium of repute could try to bamboozle Nigerians with a jaundiced report when the details are clear for everyone to see. Thank God, young Nigerians have begun filing complaints against the hack writers who decided to soil their names for a bowl of porridge.
“We are not ignorant of the machinations of the BBC and its bias towards the current government. It is unfortunate that the BBC is not upholding the same standards as they would uphold in the UK where a Prime Minister was forced out of office for hosting a party during COVID-19. In 2009, columnist Mehdi Hasan wrote in the New Statesman that the BBC was biased ‘towards power and privilege, tradition and orthodoxy.’
“It is no wonder that in the last one year, the only news medium that was given exclusive access to interview Tinubu was the BBC. It is sickening that the BBC has decided to surrender its platform to a man who was accused of illegal drug trafficking in the United States.
“In the so-called fact-check report, the BBC decided to bury in the last paragraphs the fact that Tinubu claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos in 1970 when the school was established in 1974. Why didn’t these so-called fact-checkers reflect it on their headline?
“What is the essence of the report when it failed to uncover the most critical questions? If this report was aimed at fact-checking, it should have mentioned the year the certificate was obtained by Tinubu from the CSU and if the one he submitted to INEC is the same one he received from CSU.
“Tinubu said at Chatham House that he had received a replacement from CSU when the school said in unambiguous terms that he had not done so. What was the date he applied for his INEC replacement certificate from CSU, and when was it it issued to him?
“The investigation was clearly carried out with a predetermined goal, which was to clear Tinubu. But let us ask the BBC if they would employ anyone who has had a case of drug trafficking in the US before and if he had three dates of birth in his official records as well as two different genders as well as attending a secondary school before it was established.”
Shaibu urged the BBC and other fact-checkers to be more circumspect, adding that their job was too sensitive to entertain errors.
He recalled that, “On November 28, 2022, Africa Check, one of the highly funded fact check organisations, claimed that the report by the opposition that Tinubu had lied that he attended Government College, Lagos was false.
“After Atiku Abubakar, through his daring court case, decided to blow open the lid, it turned out that the opposition was right all along. Till date, Africa Check has also not apologised for misleading the public. This is the new reality that we face. Who will fact-check the fact-checkers?”
Meanwhile, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, has demanded that President Bola Tinubu addresses Nigerians on his certificate controversy noting that it will save the country from embarrassment.
Obi said this during a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, on the heels of Tinubu’s certificate from Chicago State University released to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
“Having followed the prolonged identity crisis that recently played out in the American Court System and the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Chicago State University credentials of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I must confess that I am distressed as a Nigerian,” Obi said.
He said, “In addition to the barrage of media frenzy that the matter has triggered at home and abroad, I have had the unwholesome burden of responding to embarrassing questions about Nigeria’s overall credibility as a nation to privileged audiences and individuals both at home and abroad in different parts of the world where I have traveled lately.
“To outsiders, the entire Chicago State University matter as well as Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s many other lingering identity question marks has further worsened Nigeria’s less-than-glorious image internationally.
“Uninformed outsiders now see every other Nigerian as a potential fraudster, certain forger, or identity thief. The controversy is unnecessary just as the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided.
“In my opinion, Chief Bola Tinubu should have saved the nation and himself from this protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety. Even this late in the day, however, Chief Bola Tinubu still owes the nation and the world a simple debt of obligation that only he can discharge. I call on him to immediately and personally mount the rostrum of his present high office to perform a simple task once and for all time.
“He should re-introduce himself to the nation he governs and to the world for the avoidance of further doubt. He should let the world know his name, nationality his place of birth, his parentage, the primary and secondary schools he attended with dates as well as the actual universities he attended and certificates obtained.
“He should indicate clearly where and when he did his National Youth Service. In addition, if at any time he has had a change of name, he should clearly state so and the circumstances. That, in itself, is no crime. This simple task should take no more than a few minutes. It requires no a+davits, prolonged court processes, spokespersons, agents, or surrogates. This task is one that only Chief Bola Tinubu himself through a direct personal statement can perform. He must perform this task urgently in order to lay to rest, once and for the last time, the many lingering doubts and valid speculations about his true identity.
“A leader cannot outsource a clear unambiguous personal statement about his identity to political surrogates, social spokespersons, lawyers, or any other persons no matter how highly placed. A matter of the personal identity of a leader is too sensitive and central to the functions of the office he currently occupies to be tried with, outsourced, or disguised under the cloak of officialdom.
“It is also about integrity, morality, values, and the rule of law that denies the character of the Nation and its people. In his present capacity as a leader of a nation of over 200 million Nigerians, his true identity is a matter of grave national and international interest.”
“The people deserve to know for a certainty the true identity of their leader and this overrides whatever rights he may have to personal privacy. In addition, the international community deserves to know the true identity of the person with whom they will engage in Nigeria.
“Having stood for an election to the elevated public office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Bola Tinubu has implicitly undertaken to cede the rights of a private citizen in favour of a life of open disclosure of his true identity, and other circumstances that may be of public interest. His personal integrity demands no less.
“The legitimacy of the office he currently occupies demands that much and even more. Respect for the integrity and esteem of the Nigerian nation within the community of nations makes it even more incumbent and compulsory. It is time to do the right thing.
“Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Obi added.