The Presidency, in response to the controversy surrounding the certificate submitted by President Bola Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has asserted that the certificate is authentic and not forged.
The controversy surrounding Tinubu’s certificate from Chicago State University (CSU) was blown out of proportion on Tuesday after the university confirmed that it did not issue the certificate.
As the resulting backlash accelerated, the presidency issued a statement to debunk the allegation.
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Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President said that the CSU confirmed the authenticity of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate submitted to INEC.
Ajayi emphasized that the CSU had affirmed, under oath, that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution. Furthermore, the CSU stated that they do not handle replacements for lost certificates.
This response aims to dispel any doubts regarding the authenticity of the certificate and underscores that the allegations of forgery are baseless. Ajayi’s statement also highlights the implausibility of forging a certificate that one already possesses.
“We should be clear. In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the University said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake,” he said in a post on X.
“The University insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honors and even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors, not the University.
“The claim that President Tinubu submitted fake certificate to INEC does not make sense. A man can not forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”
Federal District Judge Nancy Maldonado had issued an order for the release of Tinubu’s academic record, following an August 2 lawsuit filed by former Nigeria’s Vice President Atiku Abubakar, seeking to compel the CSU to make the president’s academic credentials public.
The CSU admitted under sworn deposition that the certificate Tinubu submitted to Nigeria’s electoral commission in June 2022, as part of his paperwork for the presidential election contest, did not come from them.
The development has generated a lot of faux, including calls for Tinubu, who was controversially declared winner of the February 25 presidential election by INEC, to be disqualified.
The outcome of the presidential election is still being challenged, currently at the Supreme Court, by Atiku and Peter Obi, Tinubu’s major opponents at the election.
Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in early September, dismissed the allegation of certificate forgery filed Atiku. The release of Tinubu’s Chicago State University record is expected to bring a fresh critical bearing on the case, as the constitution stipulates forgery as a ground for disqualification of any political office holder.