There is no evidence that the diploma Nigeria's President Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to the country's electoral commission was forged, the BBC's Global Disinformation Team has found.

Allegations that President Tinubu's certificates were faked went viral on social media following the release by Chicago State University (CSU) of his academic records last week.

We have looked at some of the most widely circulated claims.

The release of the president's academic documents is the culmination of a judicial case filed in August by one of his main rivals in February's presidential election, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr Abubakar was hoping to have the victor disqualified after accusing him of falsifying the CSU diploma of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration awarded in 1979 that he submitted to the electoral authority (Inec).

To obtain evidence for his case in Nigeria, Mr Abubakar approached a US court in August, requesting it to compel CSU to release Mr Tinubu's academic records through a process called discovery, where the parties exchange information including documents ahead of a trial.

Mr Tinubu's lawyers opposed the discovery application, citing privacy concerns, but the US court decided it should proceed.

The documents requested by Mr Abubakar were:

Copies of diplomas with the same font, seal, signatures, and wording awarded to other students that are similar to what CSU awarded to Mr Tinubu in 1979
Documents from CSU that were certified by Jamar Orr, who was then a staff member of CSU, in the 12 months from 1 August 2022


In response to request one, CSU submitted seven diplomas covering different disciplines with the names of the students redacted. According to the university's registrar, these diplomas had not been collected by the students.

In response to request two, CSU stated that it could not find the diploma they issued to Mr Tinubu in 1979, because they do not keep copies of diplomas already collected by students.

In response to request three, CSU stated that it produced for Mr Tinubu a replacement diploma dated 27 June 1979. It also released diplomas awarded to other students that bore similar font, seal, signatures and wordings as Mr Tinubu's diplomas.

In response to request four, CSU submitted other academic documents initially attested to and released by Mr Orr.

In line with the judge's ruling, Mr Abubakar's lawyer Angela Liu last week questioned Caleb Westberg, CSU's current registrar, in a deposition.

The BBC was given access to the deposition transcript by Mr Abubakar's spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu.

Some social media users in Nigeria allege that the deposition and the diplomas released by CSU confirm that the diploma submitted to Inec by Mr Tinubu was forged. This claim was also repeated by one of Mr Abubakar's lawyers, Kalu Kalu, at a press conference last week.

We found there was no evidence to support this claim.

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
The second one, that he submitted to Inec - supposedly a replacement diploma from CSU (it is similar to diplomas issued by CSU 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.

During Mr Westberg's deposition, Mr Atiku's lawyer focused on the copy of the diploma President Tinubu handed to the electoral commission and suggested that it was unlike any of the diplomas released by CSU.

However, while Mr Westberg agreed with Ms Liu that the diploma in question does not look like the samples from 1979, he stated that the certificate actually looks like three of the diplomas CSU released to Mr Abubakar. Our analysis confirms this.

It turns out that the discrepancy in the appearance of the diploma is down to it having been re-issued in the 1990s.

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.

As such, if Mr Tinubu had reordered his diploma in the late 1990s, what he would have been given would look like what was obtainable then.

Three of the diplomas dating from the 1990s that CSU submitted were similar to Mr Tinubu's.

One of them, which bears the date 18 December 1998, is identical (aside from the names, class of degree, and dates) to the diploma Mr Tinubu handed over to Inec.

Mr Westberg also stated that CSU does not keep notes of when a graduate asks for the reissuing of a diploma and therefore Mr Tinubu's request for a copy of the diploma was not recorded.

The copy he gave to the election commission had part of the university logo missing, which Mr Westberg said in his deposition was possibly "cut off" when it was photocopied.

We analysed the diploma. It appears in fact that its bottom part was not included during the photocopy process.

But that university last Monday said on oath that Tinubu did not collect his degree certificate from the institution. So, where and how did our president get what he announced in London? Now, the whole world knows that what the president holds is not from the university; it is a counterfeit made by characters who would easily con Ali in ‘Ali and the Angel.’

The certificate which our president submitted to INEC contains signatures of persons who were not where the document says they were when it was made. The document is dated 1979 but Tinubu did not claim losing the original certificate in 1979 so the replacement could not have been made in 1979. The people who signed it held no position in that university in 1979 but the document says they did. The legal authority that should issue it says it never did

“We expect the CJN and other Supreme Court Justices to courageously uphold the constitution by ensuring that a confirmed lawbreaker is not retained as the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.”

Racoon:
CSU have already debunked it while BBC whatsoever group is not the issue authority.

Yuceeluv:
Orisirisi!.

So someone will come to my shop and buy something. I will issue receipt. The person would misplace it and write jaga jaga one. His neighbour will come and ask me if the jaga jaga one is my receipt. I will say no. It's not.

Then one over sabi will enter my shop from nowhere, put on glasses and come and tell me that I am mistaken. That the jaga jaga one is my receipt.


Ontop my own shop, goods and receipts. You are saying I don't know my original receipt again.

Obiedun:
Headless mob will attack BBC taya today

omohayek:


Original article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-67067854

No doubt the usual suspects will now claim that Tinubu has supposedly "paid off" the BBC for this report, that the BBC is part of some imaginary "Lagos-Ibadan media" cabal, or that Chiagozie Nwonwu & Fauziyya Tukur (2 of the 3 authors of the article) are both secretly "Agbadorians" writing under Igbo and northern names ...

Penguin2:
A few thousand pounds can get this kind of rubbish published on BBC. That’s if it’s even authentic.

Add that to the fact that Rishi Sunak seems to be in support of the drug lord in Aso Rock so that UK can continue to make billions of pounds from Nigerians that are trying to escape the shithole.

Only fools will be fooled by this.

Penguin2:
A few thousand pounds can get this kind of rubbish published on BBC. That’s if it’s even authentic.

Add that to the fact that Rishi Sunak seems to be in support of the drug lord in Aso Rock so that UK can continue to make billions of pounds from Nigerians that are trying to escape the shithole.

Only fools will be fooled by this.

Penguin2:
A few thousand pounds can get this kind of rubbish published on BBC. That’s if it’s even authentic.

Add that to the fact that Rishi Sunak seems to be in support of the drug lord in Aso Rock so that UK can continue to make billions of pounds from Nigerians that are trying to escape the shithole.

Only fools will be fooled by this.

Feintline:
The corn community are the dullest set of humans in whole wide world.

Wetin concern bbc with CSU? Is BBC a school?
Did tinubu attend BBC? Is BBC a law court?

I am 500% sure that the useless twitt is from one hited or paid backroom staff and has nothing to do with the BBC as an organization.

No sane organization will associate itself with a matter that was unleashed in the court.

Tinubu has corrupted and bastardized the brains and conscience of some persons.When you hear the excreta that comes out from their mouth, you begin to imagine how hopeless the products that come out from them will be.

Built2last:
We know the forge master has been buying lobbyist all over the world to launder his image. His image is in tatters.

The man said if this result is released. it will cause him irreparable damage.

Dumb followers are online shouting nothing dey happen

It will be interesting when he travels next for the next world leaders meeting,
He will be avoided like plague

donphilopus:






Keep shut you headless mob. You would have been celebrating them if they had claimed he forged his certificate.

The school that issued that certificate testified under oath that he indeed graduated from the school. They also said transcript is more important than certificate in America yet you're calling him a certificate forger. Did the school deny him? Even if he got the certificate from a third-party vendor (which is legal in the US), did he alter anything?

I dunno why some of you cannot reason for yourselves. You wait for the likes of Hundeyin and that Seun of Asleep TV to reason for you. It's unfortunate.