Since 1999, that Bola Tinubu became the Governor of Lagos State, his academic records have not only been shrouded in secrecy but are also controversial till date, raising a lot of questions regarding the academic integrity of Nigeria’s 63rd President.
While previous attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding the academic records of President Bola Tinubu have been futile, his closest rival in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), took it upon himself to unravel the mystery surrounding the academic records of Tinubu, which, according to him, will assist him in pursuing his case in the Supreme Court.
Battle Shifted To United States of America
The battle ground which started in Nigeria was later shifted to the United States of America, where, despite efforts by Tinubu to prevent Chicago State University from releasing his academic records to Atiku failed.
A United States District Court headed by Justice Nancy Maldonado ordered CSU to release the academic records of President Bola Tinubu to Atiku Abubakar.
Following the order, the university, through its Office of the Registrar, affirmed that Bola A. Tinubu attended the university “from August 1977 through June 1979.”
Bola A. Tinubu was “awarded a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honours on June 22, 1979,” the school wrote in the documents released.
The Inconsistencies
However, this is inconsistent with another certificate Tinubu allegedly submitted to INEC that he studied accounting with 1st class honours from CSU.
The registrar also swore to this revelation under oath, which validated that Bola A. Tinubu was indeed a student at the school.
In addition, the CSU released Bola A. Tinubu’s college transcript, which showed that the pre-qualification papers for the university belonged to a woman.
The university said Tinubu used a Southwest College transcript and was admitted to Chicago State University.
The college transcript was marked ‘f’, denoting female, while Bola A. Tinubu, as Nigerians know, is a’m’, male.
Also, another discovery from the college transcript showed the date and social security number, SSN, with the question being asked: who does the SSN belong to?
Tinubu, it would be recalled, had submitted a CSU certificate to INEC in aid of his biodata when filing to contest the presidential election in 2022 and the one he submitted to the electoral umpire in 1999.
But the certificate the CSU released on Monday showed clear cases of inconsistencies, as the redacted sample certificate it issued in 1979, the year Tinubu purportedly graduated from the school, had different fonts, logos, and characters, among other differences.
Another discovery from the CSU documents is that Bola A. Tinubu, who applied to Southwest College for an associate degree in 1975, claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos.
To aid his admission, Bola A. Tinubu presented a 1970 GCE A-level result with grades ‘E’ in Chemistry and Biology and an ‘F’ in Physics.
Further Findings
However, findings based on available records showed that Government College, Lagos, was established in 1974, which strengthened the argument from the president’s critics that there’s a case of forgery.
A careful study of the GCE A-level result raises another question, as Bola A. Tinubu, who sat for the exam, did so as an HSC student.
It has been revealed that HSC used to be a two-year study after five years of secondary school education, meaning that the owner must have graduated from secondary school at least in 1968.
Bola A. Tinubu’s Chicago State University admission letter was dated August 23, 1977. It was addressed to ‘Mr. Tinubu’ and not ‘Ms.’ or ‘Miss Tinubu’, raising another confusion about why some other documents were marked ‘f’, female.
Another revelation from the records is that the Nigerian president claimed publicly that he was born on March 29, 1952, which is inconsistent with the birthday recorded in his CSU transcript, which showed he was born on March 29, 1954.
Curiously, the spaces for birthday in the Southwest College transcript and secondary education transcript he submitted to CSU were left blank.
A simple interrogation showed that if President Tinubu was born in 1954, he graduated from high school aged 14 years, even though his camp claimed he never attended secondary school and only sat for senior school certificates, studying from home like the late Obafemi Awolowo, premier of the western region.
Another inconsistency seen in the records released by CSU is the error in Bola A. Tinubu’s name. Bola A. Tinubu’s last name was misspelt in several documents CSU released.
There was a ‘THUBV’, ‘Tinububu’, among other inconsistencies from the records released.
Tinubu’s Claim of Losing His Certificate
Tinubu had made the claim of loss of certificates in his filings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 1999 and 2003, when he ran for governor of Lagos State.
Gani Fawehinmi Accused Tinubu Of Forging His Certificates
On October 7, 1999, the late human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) filed an order at the Federal High Court in Lagos to compel security operatives to investigate criminal allegations he made against the then governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu had made the claim of loss of certificates in his filings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 1999 and 2003, when he ran for governor of Lagos State.
He, however, stated in 1999 that he attended St. Paul Children’s Home School, Ibadan, from 1958 to 1964 and Government College, Ibadan (GCI) from 1965 to 1968 before proceeding to Richard Daley College, Chicago, from 1969 to 1971 and the University of Chicago.
Fawehinmi, in the court documents, had filed an order of mandamus, praying for the court to compel security operatives to investigate the allegations against Tinubu, who had earlier been cleared by the Lagos House of Assembly.
An Order Of Mandamus
An order compelling the respondents, whether by themselves, their agents, servants, privies, or otherwise, to investigate the applicant’s complaint of false statements on oath and false declarations made under oath by Mr. Bola Tinubu as contained in the two documents, that is, Independent National Electoral Commission Form CF001 declared and verified under oath by Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now Governor of Lagos State) before the Commissioner for Oaths at the High Court Registry, Ikeja, on December 28, 1998,” the court document had read.
“And an affidavit entitled Affidavit in Respect of Lost Certificates Sworn to by Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now Governor of Lagos State) before the Commissioner for Oath at the High Court Registry, Ikeja, on December 29, 1998.”
The Federal High Court, in its judgement, however, ruled that Tinubu, as then-sitting governor, could not be tried as he enjoyed immunity from prosecution. The Appeal Court also upheld the judgement of the lower court.
The late legal luminary then headed to the Supreme Court, and the apex court ruled that though Tinubu enjoyed immunity from prosecution, he could be investigated by the police over the allegation and tried after his tenure.
Even after his tenure as governor of Lagos State, the Nigeria Police Force refused to charge him as ruled by the Supreme Court.
Tinubu’s Background
While the issues concerning the educational background of President Bola Tinubu will linger, other questions that need to be answered by the president are basically his origin and background. Who is Sangolare Amuda Yekinni Adekunle, who was said to have come from Iragbiji in Osun State and was adopted by a famous Lagos market woman, Alhaja Abibat Mogaji Tinubu? This and many more are questions that will continue to come up when the name Bola Tinubu is mentioned!