Tinubu’s certificate not fake  — Presidency breaks silence

…We don’t have time for frivolous issues – Foreign Affairs minister

By Sodiq Adelakun

The authenticity of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Diploma Certificate from Chicago State University (CSU) has been subject to scrutiny, giving rise to a contentious debate.

This has caused a significant stir, particularly as Tinubu relied on this certificate to obtain clearance for his participation in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election under the auspices of the All Progressive Congress (APC) party.

In a recent and noteworthy development, Mr. Carl Westberg, a prominent official and the esteemed Registrar of CSU, made a solemn declaration under oath, unequivocally asserting that the replacement copy of the Diploma certificate tendered by Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not originate from the esteemed institution.

Westberg testified in court as a subpoenaed witness, following an order by Judge Nancy Maldonado to release Tinubu’s academic documents to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku Abubakar, who also participated in the presidential election, had challenged the declaration of Tinubu as the winner, citing various grounds, including the submission of forged documents to INEC.

In pursuit of his claim, Atiku had sought an order from a U.S. District Court to compel CSU to release Tinubu’s academic records for verification and authentication. Following Atiku’s success in the U.S. court, CSU was ordered to release the academic records and provide a deposition by an official of the institution.

This development adds to the controversy surrounding Tinubu’s qualification for the election.

In compliance with the order of the court, Westberg testified on oath that Tinubu’s Diploma certificate, which he claimed to have obtained from the university, and which he used to secure clearance for participation in the presidential election, is not a document of the university.

For example, the witness admitted that the Institution had no board of trustees in 1979, as against the claim in the certificate Tinubu submitted to the electoral body.

When pressed on the signatures on other certificates issued in 1979 and the one Tinubu submitted to INEC, the witness admitted variations in signature, logo, and seal.

Specifically, Westberg pointed out that the signature on the replacement certificate of Tinubu matches certificates issued in the 1990s and not those of 1979, as claimed by the President.

Meanwhile, a certified true copy of the deposition and cross examination is expected to be handed over to Atiku to further establish his allegation of forgery against Tinubu.

It would be recalled that the final leg of Atiku’s case, seeking disqualification of Tinubu from the 2023 presidential election, is now pending before the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, issued a statement regarding the controversy on Wednesday, stating that the Chicago State University (CSU) did not admit that the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is a forgery anywhere in its deposition.

He argued further that the university affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the school does not handle replacements for lost certificates.

His rebuttal comes amidst reports that the Chicago State University has said in the testimony of the institution that the Nigerian President presented a forged degree certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when he filed his paperwork to lead Nigeria in June 2022.

However, Ajayi in his submission said there is no truth in such claims as no man can forge a certificate he already possesses and it is only what you don’t have that you forge.

Taking to his account on the X micro-blogging platform, the presidential media aide wrote: “We should be clear.

“In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the University said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake.

“The University insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honours and even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors not the University.

“The claim that President Tinubu submitted a fake certificate to INEC does not make sense. A man can not forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”

…We don’t have time for frivolous issues – Foreign Affairs minister

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, says the present administration does not have time to waste on ‘frivolous issues’ following controversy surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s claim of having attended and obtained a certificate from Chicago State University (CSU) in the United States of America.

While appearing on Channels TV Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, Tuggar stated that the certificate saga has had no effect on the recent international engagements of President Tinubu, adding that the issue ‘is a distraction.’

In his words, “There is a tendency to always try to distract and detain people on such frivolous issues as opposed to facing the major issues of development. We don’t have time to waste on that.

“Nobody is wasting time about certificate qualification for somebody who has been a governor of a state, served two terms, and has been on the national stage as a politician.

“You remember that (former) President Buhari had to go through the same thing, where people were actually questioning whether he went to secondary school or not. Someone who had classmates was the captain; he was a head boy.

“The foreign leaders with whom we’ve been engaging and the international organizations clearly are disinterested in wasting time on such.”

Tuggar also stated that Nigerians should be focused on the economic challenges in the country presently and not on the certificate.

“The economic challenges we are facing – we shouldn’t be wasting time about whether some certificate, whether there is a T missing or an I hasn’t been dotted. That shouldn’t be our primary focus at the moment,” he said.