The profile of the President of Nigeria, the most populous black nation, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is mired in crisis that has produced many layers from orphan to illustrious politician, businessman to defender of democracy, but what could not add up in all this flowery dressing is his academic history which is scaring foreign investors stiff
By Miracle Egbo
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu needs to convince the devil on how he got into Chicago State University, CSU without the secondary school certificate required before admission into university. Facts have emerged that the secondary school he claimed to have attended never existed. The immortal legal luminary, Gani Fawehinmi contested the academic credentials of President Tinubu then governor of Lagos State to the Supreme Court where he was told that he cannot be charged for perjury because of immunity President Tinubu enjoyed as the governor of Lagos State then, adding that he could be made to face the wrath of the law if he leaves office as the governor. The current Minister of Aviation, Fetus Keyamo was among those who appeared on various television stations in the country to insist that the current president of the country and then governor of Lagos then is bereft of academic qualification therefore is not qualified to stand for any political contest.
Twenty four years later, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the contentious 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the appeal he filed at the Supreme Court is saying that President Tinubu lied on oath by presenting a forged CSU certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, therefore should be disqualified for lack of minimum qualification to contest for the president of the country. In a protracted legal tussle the presidential candidate of PDP in the 2023 presidential Atiku has been able to get all the academic documents supposedly of President Tinubu in spite the resistance of President Tinubu that CSU should not release his academic details to anybody let alone the presidential candidate of PDP in the 2023 presidential election.
However, a United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has ordered Chicago State University to release the academic records of President Tinubu to Nigeria’s former Vice President and the presidential candidate of PDP in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku. The court ordered that the deposition of the university must be completed on or before October 3, 2023. The order followed the Honourable Nancy Maldonado’s overruling of Tinubu’s objection to the release of his academic records to Atiku. Maldonado’s order came after a protracted legal firework in the US over the authenticity of the Diploma certificate paraded by Nigeria’s president, which was expected to resolve all controversies that have dogged Tinubu’s educational certificates which have been raging for three decades
In a 33 page document deposed to under oath by the registrar of CSU, Caleb Westberg revealed that the Southgate College Certificate that was used by one Bola A. Tinubu could not be authenticated by the university, the Diploma Certificate submitted to INEC by President Tinubu was not issued by the university. Although the university accepted that one Tinubu graduated but revealed that all the documents used in gaining admission into the university could not be authenticated. The university deposed also that they issued the certificate that was given to a Nigerian lawyer Enahoro Eba when he requested same. Based on the document which Eba parades and has been authenticated by the university, the name on the certificate bears female and it is in contrast to the one submitted to INEC by President Tinubu.
It would be recalled that Eba, a lawyer had hitherto subpoenaed the CSU to furnish him with the academic details of Tinubu which he was obliged, and the documents in possession of the lawyer have been authenticated by CSU, and the content of the documents in the possession of the lawyer is sharp contrast with the one Tinubu submitted to INEC. Information at the disposal of this medium has established that all the credentials Tinubu has submitted since 1999 has been established to be false, starting from the primary and secondary schools he claimed to have attended to the certificates he has been parading.
Questions that have defied answers from the camp of APC and Tinubu are how he gained admission into CSU with a secondary school certificate issued by a Lagos Government College in 1970 whereas the same College was established in 1974. Why the qualifying Southgate College certificate into the university bears the name of a female who was said to be female student whom Tinubu superimposed his name on? Where the secondary and primary schools he attended were located? The Southgate certificate which Tinubu claimed belonged to him is shrouded in controversy to the effect that the university could not attest to the authenticity of the certificate which served as the qualifying certificate to the university. Tinubu could not provide evidence of any of his classmate either in Primary or Secondary schools he attended whether dead or alive.
In what has become a public debate, the spin doctors of President Tinubu insisted that since the Registrar of CSU deposed on oath that one Bola Ahmed Tinubu graduated from the University, matters relating to the authenticity or otherwise should be consigned to the dustbin of history because it is unnecessary distraction. Felix Mouka, the National Publicity Secretary of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC in an interview with Arise Television on its programme Prime Time anchored by Charles Aniagolu said that CSU has admitted that President Tinubu was a student of the University, therefore all this hullabaloo about forgery does not arise in the first place. He said that what is material to the discussion is that CSU had said that President Tinubu graduated from the school; any other insinuation should be disregarded because it is dead on arrival.
However, Osita Chidoka, a chieftain of PDP, former Minister and former Corp Marshal of Federal Road Safety Corp said that it is crystal clear that the diploma certificate submitted to INEC by President is forged because the deposition on oath by the Registrar of the University does not recognize the certificate that is being paraded by President Tinubu. Chidoka said in an interview with Arise Television that it is disturbing that President Tinubu who left office as a governor almost 24 years ago could not update his academic records. “He could have sat for General Certificate for Education, GCE or its equivalent and gone to university if he wanted than this embarrassment that he exposed the nation and himself to by allowing this entire avoidable bloomer”. According to the former Corp Marshal, what does not add up in the defense of President Tinubu and his spin doctors is the fact they have not cited the secondary school with which he used to gain admission into CSU. He opined that it is an aberration that somebody could go to university abroad without the prerequisite certificate to enroll into university both in the country and beyond.
Atiku in well attended world press conference told Nigerians that he unearthed the fraudulent academic qualifications of President Tinubu to set the records straight that the document he has been parading since 1999 is fake and that is why he is approaching the apex court to disqualify him because he forged the certificate that he submitted to INEC.
Hear him: “Our country is bigger than any of us and its standing in the world affects the fate of all who come from or live in it. As leaders, it is our duty to advance the well-being of all our people and of the country.
“For this purpose, my generation worked hard to return the soldiers to the barracks and defended the right of the people to elect and establish for ourselves a legitimate government.
“Our elections are established and governed by law and founded on the constitution from which leadership government in Nigeria alone derive their legitimacy”.
The conclusion in most quarters is that if the bloomer of President Tinubu should be ignored as suggested by Mouka, Nigerians, Joint Admission Matriculation Board, JAMB should as matter of urgency tender apology to Miss Mmesome Ejike who actually sat for JAMB but forged her JAMB result. It is fact that she actually sat for the JAMB examination, made good grade but she forged the result he presented to the pubic which has earned her punishment to the effect that she is not going to sit for the exam again for the period of three years. If such punitive measures have been meted to little Miss Ejike, it is expected that the Supreme Court should disqualify Tinubu for forgery as attested by the University he attended, CSU. Pundits argued that anything short of the punishment meted to Miss Ejike by JAMB is not acceptable on the case of forgery which has been established against Tinubu by the University he attended. They argued that sweeping the forgery scandal under the carpet is going to spell doom for the generation yet unborn because it would have been established that forgery is allowed in our national lives.
Ilomuna Onoja, a lawyer and a chieftain of PDP had averred that Nigerians owed Miss Ejike an apology if the apex could dismiss what is obvious forgery. According to Onoja, CSU categorically said that it never issued the certificated that Tinubu submitted to INEC and never authorized any third party vendor to issue the same in this regard. He advised JAMB and Nigerians to go and apologize to Miss Ejike if Tinubu is going to be allowed to get away with this at the court of law.
Information at the disposal of this medium revealed that the cartel that availed him with the fake certificate that he has been parading is much at work in making sure that a clean bill of health is extended to President Tinubu as it affects his academic records. It was gathered that it is still not comprehensible as a reputable university like CSU would issue a certificate that could not indicate whether the owner is a male or female. “If President Tinubu was too sure that he actually attended CSU why the concerted efforts to stop the university from making public his academic profile in the university when Atiku approached a Court in the United States of America to force the university to avail him the details of the academic records of President Tinubu. We are setting a bad precedent if we as a country should allow this to go without consequences”, offered Okoye Pius, a lawyer and public affairs analyst.
Since CSU made public the academic credentials of President Tinubu, one missing link that has not been hyped anywhere is the fact that he has not been able all these years to tell Nigerians the secondary school he attended or any of his classmates at the secondary school dead or alive.
In his submission, Kalu Kalu, an Abuja based lawyer said that it not debatable that CSU has categorically stated that the certificate he submitted to INEC does not originate from the university “therefore it has been established that he forged the certificate he has been parading“. Kalu maintained that the evidence is still admissible in the apex court because there has been precedence. “Tinubu cannot benefit from forgery which has been established, and the university has been able to prove it against Tinubu”. Kalu averred that the qualifying certificate into the university bears the name of a female, “do we now say that he a female or male?”
Kalu insisted that the qualifying certificate into the University which Tinubu parades is fake, the secondary school he claimed to have graduated from never existed as at the time he claimed to have graduated. The National Youths Service Corp, NYSC certificate he paraded and submitted to INEC bears Atanda, adding that Tinubu cannot in on breath bear Ahmed and in another bears Atanda.
Information at the disposal of this medium revealed that because of the controversy and the embarrassment that the certificate scandal has generated, prospective foreign investors are said to have rescinded their earlier decision to come and invest in the country. The reason they adduced is that if the man who is piloting the affairs of the country is fraudulent there is no guarantee that their investment would be protected.
Kenneth Okonkwo, a chieftain of Labour Party commended Atiku for exposing the false credentials of Tinubu which he has been parading since 1999 till date. He said that the apex court owes Nigerians by making sure that somebody whose credentials are shrouded in controversy should not be allowed to occupy the number one position of the country. According to Okonkwo, if the apex court allows the falsehood to stand it would be sending dangerous signal to the generation unborn and succeeds to label the country as a country that is peopled by forgers as evidenced in the credentials of Tinubu. And it is reasonable enough to scar any prospective investors from the country that is bedeviled with insecurity and other vices.
