Nigeria: Release of Tinubu’s academic records by CSU sparks controversy
By Nambu Bernadette Franka with additional reports from Nigerian news outlets.
The Chicago State University (CSU), has released the academic records of President Bola Tinubu. This release to the February 25, 2023, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, is a result of the court order from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The release of these results by CSU has sparked much controversy because there is a slight difference as some of the records do not match with what President Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the presidential elections.
In terms of birth date, his records to INEC indicate he was born on March 29, 1952, which is what has been used till he was elected as President. In the recent record of CSU, it shows he was born on March 29, 1954, a two-year difference.
Again, in Tinubu’s CSU application form, he was referred to as a male, while the admission records, they released referred to him as a female, the university is said to have attributed this to a clerical error.
Follow the discussions on Twitter:
Just got hold of the written copy of yesterday's deposition and…yeah @ChicagoState is in just as much trouble as Pablo Ecowas.
— David Hundeyin (@DavidHundeyin) October 4, 2023
Apart from confirming that the certificate submitted to INEC is a forgery, they also confirmed that they have no way of knowing that "Bola A. Tinubu"… pic.twitter.com/ftfyoX6jpW
According to The Premium Times, the letter confirmed that Mr Tinubu attended the university from August 1977 to June 1979 in accounting. It said Tinubu was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honours on June 22, 1979.
Mr Atiku intends to use the CSU academic records in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court where he has been challenging Tinubu’s victory in the February 25th presidential elections.
