On Tuesday, Chicago State University released President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to Atiku Abubakar, his opposing presidential candidate during the February 2023 elections.
Atiku had requested the records to aid his appeal at the Supreme Court against the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the disputed 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu’s legal team had tried to block the release of the records, but a US District Court in Northern Illinois ordered CSU to release them.
While the documents indicate that President Tinubu indeed attended Chicago State University, there are parts of the records that has generated controversy among Nigerians since last night.
Gender Inconsistencies:
The documents contained an admission record that listed Tinubu as female. The document which has as its header, South West College which he used to gain admission into CSU, listed Tinubu’s sex as “F” which is an abbreviation for Female. However, in his admission letter into CSU, Tinubu is referred to as “Mr” while other records reference him as “Male”.
Discrepancy in Date of Birth:
One of the controversies is the discrepancy in Tinubu’s date of birth. In Tinubu’s biodata submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Tinubu claimed he was born March 29, 1952. However, the CSU Academic records shows March 29, 1954.
Intriguingly, the South West College transcript leaves the date of birth blank.
This would imply that the President may have attempted to alter his birth records or that the date in the CSU records belonged to someone else.
Possible Certificate Forgery:
While the certificates issued to Atiku and the one Tinubu submitted to INEC was issued by the university, there’s a major observation. CSU provided a sample of certificates given to studebts in 1979. When compared to the replacement certificate Tinubu gave INEC, one would find that “1867” is missing from the logos on the submitted record.
This has raised question marks as to if the President, in a rush to submit, may have forged the certificate.
Other sample replacement certificates indicate further discrepancies.
Despite the controversies, Tinubu’s studentship at CSU was authenticated by university.
SSCE Controversies
In Nigeria, the minimum requirement to contest for political Office is a Senior School Certificate or O’levels. In his filings with INEC in 2023, Tinubu cautiously skipped filling anything in the primary and secondary school column.
But in previous submissions to INEC in 1999 and 2003, Tinubu claimed he attended St Paul Children’s Home School, Ibadan, between 1958 and 1964 while his secondary education was at Government College, Ibadan, between 1965 and 1968.
However, the documents released by CSU indicates Tinubu attended Government College, Lagos, and presented a 1970 GCE A-level result with grades E in Chemistry and Biology and an F in Physics.
The problem is GCL was established in 1974, four years before Tinubu claimed to have graduated.
However, President Tinubu is yet to speak on these controversies while a deposition is underway in the US to verify some of the discrepancies.
The controversies surrounding his academic records could have significant implications for Tinubu’s political career in view of a Supreme Court Case challenging his status as President and his credibility as a leader.
