• It’s distraction -Minister • Says Ezekwesili’s intervention on issues of public interest reckless
By Chinelo Obogo and Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Amid mixed reactions following the release of President Bola Tinubu’s academic records, the Presidency has broken its silence saying the president’s certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was genuine and not forged.
The Chicago State University (CSU) had released the records on the orders of the court following a petition by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
He had requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery against Tinubu. The former vice president asked his lawyers to seek legal answers to key issues he considers as fundamental to his suit challenging the qualifications of Tinubu as a president of Nigeria. They include an example of a CSU diploma issued in 1979; Tinubu’s diploma issued in 1979; example of a CSU diploma that “contains the same font, seal, signatures and wording” as Tinubu’s diploma issued in June 1979 and CSU documents certified and produced by Jamar Orr, an associate general counsel at CSU at the time.
Atiku believed the official documents will back the allegation of forgery which was one of those dismissed by the presidential election court in the suit he filed to challenge Tinubu’s election.
The Presidency, in its first official reaction, yesterday, through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, said CSU confirmed that the president did not submit a fake result to INEC.
The aide pointed out that CSU had sworn under oath that Tinubu had been a student and a graduate, and that the university does not handle replacements for missing certificates. Ajaiyi said there was no truth in the forgery claim, adding that no person can forge a certificate he already had.
Posting on X, Ajayi under his verified handle @TheTope_Ajayi 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 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.”
The presidential aide also described former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili’s intervention on the issue as reckless and undisciplined.
He said: “I have never seen any former senior government official or a former Minister that is as reckless and indisciplined like @obyezeks with the way and manner she intervenes on issues of public interest. In a manner typical of her, she has jumped on the Atiku Abubakar’s groundless Chicago State University matter in deference to her base instincts. Every matter is an opportunity for Madam Oby to play to the gallery. Having attained certain level and public status in life, a measure of decorum is expected.”
Ezekwesili via her verified handle said Tinubu would have saved the nation the embarrassment of Chicago State University (CSU) court case by instantly and voluntarily asking the institution to publish his academic credentials, saying it would have been less traumatic for Nigerians.
She said: “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.
“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 @SupremeCourtNg , our work is cut out for us to uncompromisingly demand a root and branch reform of the entire Electoral @inecnigeria and Judicial Systems @njcNig .
This is a MUST DO.”
Also reacting, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, described the CSU saga as a trivial matters which the Tinubu-led administration cannot waste time on.
“There is a tendency to always try to distract 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 and was the captain? He was a head boy.”
The minister claimed that during Tinubu’s recent international meetings, no one has shown interest in the saga.
“The foreign leaders that we’ve been engaging and the international organisations clearly are disinterested in wasting time on such. We pay no mind to that”
Tuggar added that due to the critical situation of the nation, Nigerians should not be obsessed by certification.
Instead, he asked them to concentrate on development.
“With the economic challenges we are facing, we shouldn’t be wasting time about 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 noted.
Reacting, founder of Budgit, Seun Onigbinde, said: “In all of this, why can’t President Tinubu just personally (not aides, lawyers and surrogates) tell us his life story from start till date? He owes the Nigerian public an explanation.The highest seat in the government and a national symbol should not be brought into disrepute. This is a very simple exercise:”I went to this primary school x, secondary school y, College z, University b etc. This is why there’s a gender discrepancy, here are my entry forms & also my story about the certificate.” There’s the legal element but we must guard our morals and this is too basic for a character meant to serve us.”
Human rights lawyer, Chidi Odinkalu said: “Why would someone who claims to have gone to university forge their own certificate? There are only two explanations: they either didn’t go as whom they are or, if they did, they did not graduate”, while another lawyer, Inihebe Effiong said: “I just read extracts from the deposition of Chicago State University by lawyers to Atiku. The revelations are upsetting. This is not good for the image of the country.”
A lawyer, Oba Maduabuchi, said during a program on Arise TV that the Supreme Court Rules does not apply in a case before the court because it is an election petition but another lawyer, Abdul Mahmood, countered him saying: “Order 2 Rule 12 Supreme Court Rules 2022 allows for admitting fresh/new evidence. So it’s left to the Supreme Court to decide. It isn’t debatable that CSU admitted Tinubu attended its programme. The point, incontrovertible and irrefutable, is that he committed forgery by submitting a certificate he wholly produced by himself to INEC, which is a constitutional breach (per Section 137(1)(j) CFRN 1999) and identity theft – by procuring a certificate which bore a female identity- which is a crime. Time we narrow this saga to the real constitutional and legal issues!”