Recall that a United States court had asked CSU to release the president’s certificate to Atiku Abubakar , who contested for Nigeria’s most coveted political seat under the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 presidential election.
While Tinubu, through his aides, has reiterated that his certificate from the CSU was not falsified, the majority of Nigerians, especially from the opposition, thinks otherwise.
Recounting its findings, BBC said there are three versions of the CSU certificates for Tinubu.
“The CSU released several diplomas issued between 1979 and 2003. We analysed all of them.
“There are three different diplomas for Mr Tinubu that we refer to throughout our analysis:
“The original one, from 1979, which he has said in the past was lost when he went into exile in the 1990s.
“Additionally, CSU holds another replacement diploma for Mr Tinubu that they say is probably from the early 2000s that he never collected.
“The allegations on social media are based on a comparison between the document Mr Tinubu submitted to Inec and the 1979 diplomas released by CSU.”
According to the British media organisation, the deposition by CSU’s registrar, Caleb Westberg, also attested to it that Nigeria’s leader did not forge his diploma.
“Mr Westberg said the template of CSU’s diploma has changed several times over the years. He said any request for a new diploma would resemble the current template at that time, no matter when the student graduated,” BBC said.
It also disclosed that, “The BBC reached out to Mr Tinubu’s team to get a copy of the diploma in question. They sent what they said was the only existing copy of the diploma. It is a black and white photocopy identical to what was submitted to Inec.
“Another claim, made by a fact-checking organisation in Nigeria, was that the diploma Mr Tinubu submitted was not from CSU as its diplomas do not include the phrase “with honors” under the degree name.
“But the BBC found that while this was not reflected in the other diplomas released by CSU, it does appears in Mr Tinubu’s diploma issued in the early 2000s, which was authenticated by Mr Westberg during his deposition.
“It has the words “with honors” – a match with the diploma with the same detail submitted by the president to INEC.”
“Mr Westberg said that the school could authenticate this particular diploma because it was still in its possession as it was never picked up,” it stated.
“Not every student graduates from university with honours. Mr Tinubu, as attested to by CSU in several court documents seen by the BBC, did graduate from CSU with honours.”
Lastly, the BBC contacted CSU with questions about its diplomas and it referred us to a statement that read in part: “We are confident and always have been in the veracity and integrity of our records regarding Tinubu’s attendance and completion of graduation requirements”.
But the BBC Disinformation Team added that:
“However, the released documents did raise questions about Mr Tinubu’s birth date and the secondary school he attended.
“One of the documents stated that Mr Tinubu attended Government College Lagos in 1970. However, information available on the school website stated that it was only founded in 1974.
“Aside from the gender discrepancy, the birth dates in some of the released documents differ from the official birth date of President Tinubu, which is 29 March 1952.
“His transcript from CSU has his date of birth as 29 March 1954. His undergraduate admissions application form has his date of birth as 29 March 1955.
“Mr Atiku’s lawyer said during Mr Westberg’s deposition that on the forms submitted to Inec, Mr Tinubu had given his date of birth as 29 March 1952.
“Mr Westberg, during cross-examination, responded that the discrepancies could have been due to human error.”
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