By Eric Elezuo

It’s been 24 years since the scandal involving Nigeria’s incumbent President, Bola Tinubu, hit the media space, and tried as both the President and his co-travellers have, the stigma has just refused to go away. In fact, recent happenings point to the fact that the scandal might never go away except certain simple steps, which may appear humongous to Tinubu and his supporters, are taken.

It is the hitherto alleged certificate forgery scandal that has trailed Tinubu like a second skin. The matter has remained a case of the more you search, the more dirty skeletons are revealed, making it imperative to ask if the now proven forgery scandal will ever go away.

The matter is being unraveled at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Earlier in 1999, renowned legal luminary, late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, raised the alarm that Tinubu, then elected governor of Lagos State, submitted forged documents to enable his participation in the election, which he eventually won. Within a short period of time, Fawehinmi granted interviews to two popular media outfits, Newswatch and The Source. In both occasions he alleged that Tinubu was a criminal, who needs to vacate office.  Both magazines screamed the damning names on their covers, drawing attention of Nigerians to the fraud. Fawehinmi, however, was not able to prove the forgery allegation.

But veteran journalist, Dele Momodu, in his Pendulum, titled The Truth Tinubu Must Be Told, and published on Saturday, October 7, 2023, provided insight to what might have transpired. He wrote:

“…One of them, extremely close to Tinubu, was the first to tell us about “the falsification of Tinubu’s age, the identity of his original parents from Iragbiji, his forged academic records”, and so on. This chain-smoker claimed absolute knowledge of Tinubu’s life. He told us in my Accra home that anyone who tells Tinubu the truth is instantly marked down as an enemy, so he has stopped telling him the truth. With this kind of mindset, you can imagine what quality of advice Tinubu gets regularly.

“Then, out of the blues, my very daring and loyal friend, Tokunbo Afikuyomi, decided to bite the bullet on behalf of Tinubu. What he did was reminiscent of the “lamb of God who took away the sins of the earth…” He, like a kamikaze soldier, took absolute responsibility for the errors contained in Tinubu’s files. Miraculously, Tinubu was saved, and we were all relieved. Everyone is asking me how has Tinubu compensated Afikuyomi, and my answer is I don’t know.”

But in 2005, while Tinubu was racing home in his second four years tenure, the matter resurrected. This time through Festus Keyamo, who petitioned the Lagos State House of Assembly, alleging that Tinubu submitted forged documents, and so should be impeached. Today, the same Keyamo is holding brief for Tinubu, and defending the same documents even as Chicago State University, the supposed school the papers emanated from, has disowned the papers.

While the matter seems to die down thereafter, the ghost hovered dangerous, awaiting a suitable time to unleash. That time came with the 2023 presidential election. Tinubu has picked his party’s ticket so easily that a cross section of Nigerians believed he bought his way through. He also submitted the same documents that has raised eyebrows since 1999. This prompted Momodu to ask “Why would a man who left office since 2007, 16 long years ago, fail to clean up the records that nearly got him impeached in the first instance? And given the fact that he couldn’t have personally handled those documents himself, why did the hordes of minions claiming to love him till eternity fail to deliver a world-class file for his documents?”

The answer could be that the cup was full, and nemesis was about catching up with criminal elements.

Tinubu’s victory at the elections rooted out many questions that have since defied answers. These include Tinubu’s parentage, early schools attended, real names, attendance at some of the schools he mentioned, work history and of course, the originality of the certificate he has been parading as belonging to Chicago State University. With the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, seeking fruitless reprieve at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Atiku resorted to the American court, seeking a release of Tinubu’s academic records to prove his case.

There was every indication afterwards that the certificate President Bola Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a forgery as Chicago State University’s Registrar, Caleb Westberg, has testified under oath that the replacement certificate the President submitted to INEC is not a document of the university.

Westberg’s testimony took place during a deposition following the ruling by Judge Nancy Maldonado, which authorized the release of Bola Tinubu’s records at Chicago State University. During the deposition, Westberg stated that the logo on the replacement certificate is not recognized by the institution.

Westberg, who joined Chicago State University in November 2020 from Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, said, as per a report, that President 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.

Westberg also said during the deposition that President Tinubu did not apply for a replacement certificate, nor was he ever issued one.

The deposition process lasted for more than five hours and concluded at approximately 9:30 pm Nigerian time on October 5, 2023.

The action was part of the ongoing legal challenge by the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, who is contesting the election of President Tinubu based on allegations of non-qualification due to document forgery.

CSU had long insisted that President Tinubu was its student, entering in 1977 and graduating in 1979, but its inability to authenticate the certificate the former Lagos State governor submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission would ripple across Nigeria and the world for the foreseeable future, just as the full transcript of the deposition, which was highly anticipated by those following the case closely, both in Nigeria and abroad, has been made public.

Earlier, President Tinubu had refused to release the records, claiming it would cause ‘irreparable damage’ to his person. He went ahead to seek the nod from three Appeal courts, which turned down his request. He therefore, had to reluctantly allow a federal judge in the United States to give his university certificate to his political opponent, Atiku Abubakar.

He also pleaded with Judge Nancy Maldonado to block all other details, especially the gender, and admission records, among others, of the person who owns the certificate from being disclosed, raising more questions of who the actual owners of the certificate is.

Tinubu’s acceptance that his certificate could be released came after he narrowly escaped full disclosure on September 21 by pleading severe harm to his life in order to obtain a stay of a magistrate judge’s order on September 19.

“There is harm in allowing discovery on issues and documents outside the diploma,” Mr Tinubu’s lawyers said in their full briefing to the court seeking a review of Judge Jeffrey Gilbert’s order by Ms Maldonado, a district judge.

The identity of who was admitted into Chicago State University in the 1970s has been a hot issue after college transcripts emerged that indicated the school admitted a female Bola Tinubu from Southwest College Chicago in 1977.

“Is the diploma authentic or is it a forgery? My client can’t answer yes to either of those questions,” Hayes said at the hearing in Chicago that began at about 1:30pm and lasted several hours in the lawsuit brought by Atiku Abubakar, Tinubu’s main challenger during the February 25 presidential election.

Hayes was responding to the judge’s inquiry into the school’s ability to confirm under oath that Tinubu was issued the certificate he tendered to Nigeria’s electoral office as part of his final eligibility paperwork in June 2022.

According to an audio of the proceeding obtained by SaharaReporters, the lawyer said, “So, that deposition is compiled with my client here and the issue is; was the June 22nd 1997 diploma that President Tinubu submitted as evidence in Nigeria and offered to the election agency there.. Is that authentic? My client can say we don’t know and we do not have his actual diploma to compare it to what we don’t have; whatever diploma issued in 1997 we can certainly verify the team information on that diploma and the date of his graduation which by the way is on his transcript that is in the public proceedings already.

“So there’s no question June 22nd 1997 was his actual date of graduation but beyond that and with the sideshow of this copy diploma is now being raised where the date was because of mistake made and whoever ordered it and whenever they ordered it a mistake was made; other than that, my client doesn’t have anything to say about these issues and all of these student records.”

BRIEF BACKGROUND 

On June 17, 2022, Tinubu submitted a certificate to INEC that was purportedly issued in 1979 and signed by Elnora Daniel. But Ms Daniel only arrived at CSU in 1998 from Hampton University, 19 years after Tinubu was said to have graduated. She then left the school in 2008 following a financial mismanagement scandal, or 14 years before June 2022 when CSU issued yet a fresh certificate in Tinubu’s name under subpoena from a Nigerian lawyer who had inquired about Tinubu’s education there.

The jarring contradictions, among others, caused Abubakar to file the suit to compel CSU to produce records relating to Tinubu and make its top officials available for deposition to certify the produced records.

A lot of reactions have trailed the release of the academic records and the deposition that followed. While the Tinubu cp believe that the President has done no wrong, most Nigerians are calling for the president’s resignation or sack from office having committed an offence. Nigerians have also gone down memory lane to dig up instances that should warrant the vacation of office by the president. Everyone believes that the president’s action is inimical to the healthy growth and development of the nation, and likely to reduce her importance among comity of friends with within the continent, sub-region and the in global politics.

In his reaction, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), called on members of the international community, especially the EU, US, UK and ECOWAS to prevail on Tinubu to vacate office over the inglorious certificate forgery.

He argued that though authorities of the Chicago State University (CSU) had agreed under oath that a certain person named “Bola A. Tinubu” attended the school but has denied issuing the diploma Certificate he, the Bola Ahmed Tinubu that contested elections in Nigeria presented to INEC that is purported to have been issued by the school.

He added that “The CSU documents revealed fake admission entry results used by a certain Bola A. Tinubu, with a GCE purportedly obtained from Government College Lagos 1970 and South West College Illinois. The former was not in existence in 1970 but established in 1974 and the latter certificate in the United States contains particulars of a female including her Social Security Number.”

Frank further outlined as follows: “Nigerians will recall that the Bola Ahmed Tinubu that contested elections in Nigeria has social security number in the documents of his Narcotics conviction in Chicago which are at variance and materially different from those presented by CSU belonging to the Bola A Tinubu that attended CSU. Is it therefore possible for a U.S Resident or citizen to have two social security numbers?

Date of birth conflict: The CSU transcripts also carries as date of birth the date, 29 March 1954. Tinubu’s submission to INEC is 29 March 1952. This clearly shows that he lied to INEC under oath (Perjury) by the authority of the CSU papers.

Hence the pre-requisite admission documents submitted to CSU by the said Tinubu that attended their institution, contains information at variance with those presented to INEC by the Bola Tinubu that contested Elections in Nigeria at various times, indicating serial events of forgery and dishonesty both in Nigeria and abroad.”

He therefore, echoed Nigerians submission that by the revelation that Tinubu apparently forged the certificate presented to INEC, he is constitutionally not fit to remain as President of Nigeria.

“Now that it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that Tinubu forged the certificate with which he contested the Presidential election in February 25, 2023, he is duty bound to vacate office as provided for in section 137(1)(j) of the constitution which stipulates that no one would be legitimately elected as President of Nigeria if the person has “presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”

Meanwhile, Atiku has approached the Supreme Court with his findings, seeking the apex Court’s approval to tender the fresh evidence.

The documents, which Atiku sought to tender are Tinubu’s academic records, which were handed over to him by Chicago State University (CSU) on Monday, October 2, 2023.

The 32-page documents were released to the former Vice President on the orders of Judge Nancy Maldonado of the District Court of Illinois, Eastern Division, Illinois, United States of America (USA).

Atiku, through his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), reminded the Apex Court that “the presentation of a forged certificate to INEC by a candidate for election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a weighty constitutional matter, requiring consideration by the Courts as custodians of the Constitution”.

Uche stated that the original certified deposition has been forwarded to the Supreme Court in a letter addressed to the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court.

In a 20-paragraph affidavit deposed in support of the appeal numbered SC/CV/935/2023 with petition number CA/PEPC/05/2023, the deponent, one Uyi Giwa-Osagie, a legal practitioner, stated that the certificate Tinubu presented to INEC in support of his qualification to contest the presidential election was tendered in evidence at the trial and marked as Exhibit PBD1B, and a copy of the same is annexed herein as Exhibit “E”.

Nigerians believe that for these scandals to go away, Tinubu has to own up, come clean of whatever misdeeds he is accused of and apologize to Nigerians. Otherwise, this ghost of a scandal will linger for much longer time.