By Louis Achi
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented a certificate that the Chicago State University cannot authenticate, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when he filed his paperwork to contest the country’s presidency in June 2022, the varsity has revealed.
The revelation stems from the testimony of the Chicago State University, CSU, which had earlier affirmed Tinubu actually attended it.
This introduces a new but potentially serious front in the ongoing battle to get Tinubu disqualified for his alleged documented misdeeds from years gone by.
The apparent repudiation of Tinubu’s certificate – significantly the only academic qualification he presented to INEC – came at a deposition of CSU school officials, Tuesday, in Chicago, US.
CSU Registrar Caleb Westberg reportedly said that Tinubu’s certificate, dated June 22, 1979, and tendered to INEC on June 17, 2022, was not issued by the school and its administrators could, therefore, not be able to authenticate its source.
The categorical statement capped what seems a favourable outcome for the month-long legal quest by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the February 25 election to establish alleged inauthenticity of Tinubu’s certificate.
Atiku had approached the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of Tinubu’s certificate.
Nancy Maldonado, federal district judge granted a final order for CSU administrators to turn over all documents relating to Tinubu to the school and also sit down for deposition by an adversarial team of lawyers deployed by Abubakar.
An expanded transcript of the session is still being processed.
But the wide public interest in the case had focused attention on how the school would characterise Tinubu’s certificate under oath and penalty of perjury.
Sensing the intractable consequences of the proceeding, Tinubu vigorously fought to thwart its successful outcome, with his lawyers warning the judge in a September 21 hearing that releasing the documents with deposition would inevitably inflict “severe, irreparable damage” against Tinubu.
The school had long insisted that a “Bola A. Tinubu” was its student, entering in 1977 and graduating in 1979, but its inability to authenticate the certificate Tinubu Presented to INEC may represent a fatal blow to his effort to head off potentially damaging judicial consequences.
In 1999, Tinubu had allegedly lied under oath when he ran for governor of Lagos, claiming he obtained a degree from the prestigious University of Chicago.
However, he reportedly eluded justice for the breach because he had been elected before it was discovered, and he alsodid not submit a certificate backing his claim.
Only an affidavit that was later allegedly found to be fiction but the Nigerian Supreme Court said he could not be charged with crimes as a serving governor.
Subsequently, Tinubu stopped claiming attendance at the University of Chicago, holding on instead to a claim that he attended Chicago State University, traditionally popular among blacks.
Tinubu was declared the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election and sworn in on May 29. But today’s development could provide legal hurdles.
The unfolding development could mark a putative end to his presidency, depending on what position the Nigerian Supreme Court takes, due to the constitutional proscription against the submission of a fake certificate to the electoral body.
Section 137 (1)(j) of the Nigerian Constitution (amended in 2010) specifically stated that no one would be legitimately elected president of Nigeria if the person “has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
The records obtained from the school, the deposition, and other material collected through the U.S. legal system are now being prepared for onward submission to the Nigeria Supreme Court, where a final decision on the presidential election challenge would be made by December 6, 2023.
