Chicago Varsity: Controversy trails release of Tinubu’s academic credentials
…Tinubu is spending dollars to suppress certificate release – LP Chieftain
…He should have saved Nigerians this embarrassment – Oby Ezekwesili
By Sodiq Adelakun
The recent release of President Bola Tinubu’s academic credentials by the esteemed Chicago State University (CSU) to his political adversary, Atiku Abubakar, has elicited a myriad of divergent responses within the public sphere.
This development transpired in strict adherence to the directive issued by the District Court of Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, thereby underscoring the legal compulsion behind the disclosure.
While a segment of the populace perceives this action as an imperative measure to address the weighty allegations of forgery leveled against President Tinubu, others harbour reservations regarding the timing and underlying motivations that prompted the request for the disclosure.
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria’s forthcoming 2023 election, had vehemently accused President Tinubu of fabricating his CSU certificate, thereby casting aspersions on the veracity of the President’s educational qualifications.
However, this allegation was dismissed by Nigeria’s presidential election court. Undeterred, Atiku pursued the case in a US court, seeking official documents to support his claim and potentially include them in his appeal at Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
The US court ordered the CSU to release President Tinubu’s academic records within 48 hours. In response, the university presented Atiku’s legal team with a collection of documents related to Tinubu’s education at the institution.
Meanwhile, they provided copies of certificates issued to other individuals during the same period when President Tinubu completed his studies in 1979, with the names redacted.
The release of President Tinubu’s academic credentials has generated diverse reactions from the public.
Supporters of Atiku Abubakar view this as a significant step towards exposing alleged forgery and ensuring transparency in the political sphere.
In the same vein, critics question the timing and intention behind Atiku’s pursuit of President Tinubu’s academic records. They argue that this move appears to be politically motivated, aimed at tarnishing President Tinubu’s reputation ahead of future elections.
The release of Tinubu’s academic credentials is likely to have significant implications for Nigerian politics. It may influence public opinion and shape the narrative surrounding the credibility of political candidates.
The university, however, said it did not have a true and correct copy relating to the diploma it issued in 1979 to Tinubu as it did not keep copies of certificates.
The university said, “CSU does not in the ordinary course keep copies of student diplomas, and after diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979, hence has no documents responsive to this request.”
It also contained Mr Tinubu’s admission records, and a letter dated 27 June, 2022 confirming that he attended the university from August 1977 to June 1979 majoring in accounting. The letter said Mr Tinubu was awarded Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honours on 22 June, 1979.
The release of the documents by CSU, however, confirms that Mr Tinubu did indeed graduate from CSU in 1979 although observers say the released documents raised other questions.
Atiku had argued that authenticity of the certificates presented by Mr Tinubu goes to the root of the latter’s qualification to contest the last presidential election.
The university also handed to Atiku’s team, documents relating to Mr Tinubu certified by an official of CSU, Jamar C. Orr, a lawyer.
The university also produced, “after diligent search,” copies of three other diploma certificates issued to other students other than Mr Tinubu in 1979.
This was in response to Atiku’s request for “true and correct copies of any diplomas issued by CSU (other than to Mr Tinubu) that contain the same font, seal, signatures, and wording (other than the name of the recipient and the specific degree awarded).” Atiku sought these documents to compare and contrast them with the one Mr Tinubu submitted.
Atiku had told the US district court that he had up till 5 October to file the documents from the CSU against Mr Tinubu at the Supreme Court in Nigeria.
Mr Tinubu opposed the release of the documents to Atiku, arguing that “the Nigerian election proceedings and the Nigerian courts” had explicitly rejected the documents Atiku sought to obtain and tender in his case aimed at overturning the results of the 25 February presidential election.
Mr Tinubu’s second reason was that Atiku’s request “is unduly intrusive because it allows Applicant (Atiku) to conduct a fishing expedition into Intervenor’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.”
But dismissing Mr Tinubu’s objection on Saturday, US Judge Ms Maldonado said she was only affirming Atiku’s right to have access to the CSU documents, not confirming the merit of his allegations against the president or his comments on the validity of the country’s presidential election.
“In reaching this conclusion, the Court emphasises that it is expressing no view on the merits of Mr Abubakar’s underlying claims regarding President Tinubu or his graduation from CSU, or on the validity of the Nigerian election.
“Nor is the Court taking any position on what any of the documents or testimony from CSU may or may not ultimately show. The Court simply finds, on the narrow question before it, that Mr Abubakar is entitled to the production of documents and testimony that he seeks from CSU,” the judge ruled.
On the former vice president’s request for any of the university’s diplomas other than that of Mr Tinubu that “contains the same font, seal, signatures, and wording which purports to be a CSU diploma issued to the president on or about June 22, 1979, the university said after diligent search it located and bates labelled them CSU 0008 through CSU 0010 and obscured the student’s identity for privacy reasons.
The recent release of a document pertaining to Mr. Tinubu’s credentials has sparked a range of reactions on social media, particularly on the microblogging site, X (formerly Twitter).
Opinions on the matter have been divided, with some individuals viewing the document as a conclusive resolution to the longstanding debate surrounding Mr. Tinubu’s qualifications.
Also, there are those who feel that the document serves as evidence supporting their allegations that the president submitted counterfeit documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
In a piece titled “6 Major Findings about Tinubu from the CSU Documents,” A professor of journalism, Farooq Kperogi said the president did graduate from the CSU but forged his certificate after losing the original one.
“Although he did legitimately graduate from Chicago State University in 1979, he obviously lost his certificate and, instead of applying for a replacement, decided to forge it.
“That strikes me as mysterious self-harm. It costs only $26 to get a replacement diploma from CSU. But it takes between eight and 10 weeks to receive it after filling out the diploma replacement order form.
“My guess is that, in the typical last-minute, fire-brigade approach to things among Nigerian elites, Tinubu didn’t plan ahead and didn’t have enough time to apply for his replacement diploma from CSU to meet INEC’s deadline and decided to visit Lagos’ infamous Oluwole for a counterfeit,” he said.
Also, the Labour Party (LP) chieftain, Kenneth Okonkwo, has taken a jab at President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over his certificate scandal.
Reacting to the gender error in the certificate, Kenneth Okonkwo, during an interview alleged that Tinubu is spending dollars to stop CSU from releasing his certificate, which should serve as a vindication of the accusation levelled against him.
He said, “Instead of celebrating the independence anniversary of Nigeria, in colours of white meaning peace and green meaning agriculture and vegetation, we are busy trying to unearth whether our leader is a female or male because physiologically and anatomically, we are seeing a male, but by document, we are seeing a female.
“What an international embarrassment that a leader who is talking about increasing the value of Naira is spending dollars abroad fighting a case that his certificate should not be released to the world. Someone is accusing you of wrongdoings, and your certificate would have been a vindication of yourself.”
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) Presidential Candidate, Adewole Adebayo, has revealed “the kind of fever he will not catch” after Chicago State University (CSU) released President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to Atiku Abubakar.
Adebayo said there are different kinds of “fever” and as an opposition member he has caught “subsidy removal, naira devaluation, and corruption fever.”
In a post shared via his X handle (formerly Twitter) @Pres_Adebayo, he described the Chicago certificate “fever” as “artificial.”
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Wahab Shittu, said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) case involving Atiku Abubakar against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25 election may have collapsed completely.
Despite the release of Tinubu’s educational results as ordered by Justice Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois Court, USA, Shittu believes this does not alter the likely outcome of the case.
Atiku’s application sought four categories of documents from Chicago State University (CSU), which confirmed Tinubu’s graduation in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili has stated that President Bola Tinubu should have saved Nigerians from what she called an embarrassment.
While reacting to the certificate scandal that the disclosure of Tinubu’s academic records with Chicago State University has caused, she said it could easily have been avoided if Tinubu had done the needful by willingly making full disclosure.
“How so much easier it would have been for Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu to have saved the country and people the embarrassment of this Chicago State University – CSU court case by instantly and voluntarily asking the institution to publish his academic credentials!
“How difficult could that have been? How so less traumatic such exemplary disclosure to remove all doubts would have been for Nigerians,” the former Minister said in a statement released via X (formerly Twitter).
She lamented, “Like most Nigerians, it is profoundly embarrassing to field mocking questions on this matter that strikes at the heart of our National Integrity from foreigners.
“Our Public Leaders of a certain genre despise transparency and yet it is an antidote to fiascos like this one.
“As Citizens, at the end of the 2023 electoral process that follows the judgement by the Nigerian Supreme Court, our work is cut out for us to uncompromisingly demand a root and branch reform of the entire Electoral (INEC) and Judicial Systems (NJC).”
She vowed, “This is a must do.”
