Tinubu Says Chicago State University Clerk Caused His Certificate Problems
The Nigerian President and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the February 25, 2023 election, Bola Tinubu, has reportedly accused the clerk of Chicago State University (CSU) of being responsible for the discrepancies in his academic certificate.
The president made this claim in a court document filed by his lawyers on August 23, 2023.
According to Peoples Gazette, President Tinubu was responding to a subpoena issued by a U.S. court to release his academic records at CSU to his political rival, Atiku Abubakar.
The former Vice President and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate had requested the court to grant him access to Tinubu’s files at CSU because he believed they would reveal inconsistencies in Tinubu’s background.
Atiku had alleged that Tinubu had presented contradictory information in Nigeria and the U.S. about his date of birth, gender, and graduation date. He also claimed that the certificate that CSU reprinted in Tinubu’s name in 2022 had several anomalies that suggested it was forged.
Tinubu’s lawyers, led by Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, argued that the subpoena was illegal and invalid because Atiku had no valid grounds to seek the documents, especially under education privacy rights. They also admitted that the certificate issued by CSU in 2022 had errors, but they blamed them on the clerk of the university.
“Unfortunately, in responding to the illegal and invalid subpoena, CSU made several errors,” Tinubu’s attorneys said.
“CSU issued a new diploma for Bola A. Tinubu, but incorrectly wrote the date of graduation as June 27, 1979.”
The lawyers also said that changes in the CSU logo, the font on the diploma, and the leadership at CSU who signed the diploma created the appearance of differences between an earlier issued diploma and the one issued in response to the 2022 subpoena.
The lawyers further argued that Atiku should not be requesting Tinubu’s academic records because they were not part of the initial litigation over the Nigerian election. They said that Atiku’s argument had been focused entirely on cheating and other irregularities around the conduct of the election.
They also said that the Nigerian court hearing the election petitions had already concluded hearing on arguments, and a judgment is now being anticipated.
The court is expected to deliver judgment on or before September 21, in line with the Nigerian electoral law that mandates the conclusion of all election petitions within six months.
The U.S. court has not yet ruled on whether to grant Atiku’s request or not. The case is being heard by Judge Jeffrey Gilbert at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
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