₦airaland Forum

Tinubu's certificate: Setting the records straight

By Tunde Rahman

Former Vice President and roundly defeated presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was a pitiful sight to behold on Thursday at the Shehu Yar 'Adua Centre, Abuja as he sat like a wreck after addressing what he called a world press conference. He had gone on a wild goose chase to the United States in search of President Bola Tinubu's certificate.

The former vice president however returned empty-handed after spending a fortune. Atiku himself admitted his exploratory journey was at a hefty cost.

At the press conference, the Waziri Adamawa discovered no new thing; he found nothing incriminating or untoward against the President. He is only currently engaging in political sophistry. Apparently deluding himself that he came back from the US with a smoking gun, at his press briefing, he sermonised on the important issue of leadership and responsibility. Alhaji Atiku assaulted the memory of the late irrepressible lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, claiming Fawehinmi inspired his shameful, worthless and self-seeking expedition.

Commending David Hundeyin, the rabble rouser who styles himself as an independent journalist, whose work he also said inspired him, it became apparent that both Atiku and Hundeyin were actually working together to embarrass President Tinubu.

Overwhelmed by his inordinate ambition, the failed PDP presidential candidate also shamelessly called traditional, religious, community and political leaders in the country including Labour Party's Peter Obi and NNPP's Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso to rally round him in his political vendetta against President Tinubu.“This quest is not for or about Atiku Abubakar. It is a quest for the enthronement of truth, morality and accountability in our public affairs,” he said. And you wonder, what morality Alhaji Atiku was preaching. This is the same man who was indicted in the 2009 conviction of his accomplice, former United States Congressman William Jefferson, over bribery charges. Same man whose principal, former President Obasanjo, wrote a damaging testimonial on and whose years in Customs were signposted by corruption allegations.

If you have not read it, this is what former President Obasanjo said about Wazirin Atiku in Volume 2 Pages 31-32 of his book "My Watch": "What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time,a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest."

It is pertinent at this juncture to clarify some of the issues that emerged from the deposition by President Tinubu’s former school, Chicago State University, in order to understand Atiku’s deliberate and malicious distortion.

Speaking on oath in the testimonies contained in a deposition made in the Office of Angela Liu, Atiku’s legal counsel, in Chicago, US, CSU Registrar, Caleb Westberg declared that President Bola Tinubu attended and graduated with honours from the institution in 1979. He in fact asserted that President Tinubu is the same person who attended the school from 1977 to 1979. “We believe Bola Tinubu who attended CSU is the same person who is the President of Nigeria today. Tinubu is an unusual name in the US. He matched the records in the file against the information provided by the student or on behalf of the student.”

On the insinuation by Atiku’s lawyers that the Bola Tinubu who attended the school was a female on account of a clerical error spotted against Tinubu’s name, Westberg disclosed that the admission letter issued to the Nigerian President evidently proved he was a male and attended the school between 1977 and 1979.

Probed further to confirm if the Tinubu that enrolled at the school was a male or female, the registrar insisted, “Tinubu applied to the university as a male and a letter of admission was issued to a male.

“There were materials in Mr. Tinubu’s records that show he was a male in the application to CSU. Mr. Tinubu identified himself as a male. His letter of admission identified him as a male. It says: ‘Dear Mr. Tinubu’”, he said.

It is relevant to point out that in the US, premium is not placed on certificates, otherwise called diplomas, as we do here. Certificates are merely ceremonial. The emphasis is on transcripts. Employers and schools offering admissions for higher education will only ask for previous transcripts.

In most cases, the certificates are also printed by third party vendors. Many certificates are left uncollected because what is important is the transcript. The CSU has diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession.

“I have the diploma that was made available to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah in our possession because Mr. Tinubu did not pick it up. I do not have the diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession because he had picked it, ” Westberg clarified while responding to another question.

Other matters also came up during the over five-hour interrogation session that I do not want to bore you with in this piece. However, it is surprising that Atiku and co would claim President Tinubu forged his certificate simply because the CSU Registrar said it could not authenticate the certificate presented to him by Atiku's lawyer as the document Tinubu presented to INEC for the 2023 Presidential Election. He said he cannot confirm because only Tinubu has the certificate which he ordered and which had been picked up for him and that the school does not keep students'certificates. Nowhere in the interrogation did Westberg use the word fake or forged as Atiku's lawyer tried to make him say so. Fact is there is no scintilla of doubt that President Tinubu attended and graduated from CSU. As my colleague, Temitope Ajayi, pointed out in his widely-publicised tweet, “You can only forge a certificate you never earned." President Tinubu honourably earned his degree and he had no reason to forge the certificate of a degree he had in his kitty. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, with distinction. He was on the Vice Chancellor’s Honour List for all his years in the school. Insinuation by anyone that he forged a certificate he worked for is sad and misleading.

Indeed, attempts by some to liken the situation with those of the disgraced former House of Representatives Speaker, Salisu Buhari and former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun are disingenuous.

Former Speaker Buhari forged the certificate of Toronto University he never attended. He was removed from office for the forgery. Former President Obasanjo later pardoned him. As for former Minister Adeosun, those who brought her to limelight and sponsored her for the ministerial appointment arranged a fake NYSC exemption certificate for her to scale Senate screening. The same people did her in when disagreements broke out between them, giving her away as a certificate forger over which she eventually resigned. The cases are markedly different: President Tinubu earned his stripes.

In the final analysis, it is yet unclear how Atiku plans to benefit from whatever he claims to have brought back from the US. Certificate forgery was not pleaded in his election petition now at the Supreme Court. Without being a lawyer, this is a civil case and I understand you can't make new pleas or present new evidence in a case that has passed the court of first instance and is at present on appeal at the Supreme Court.

What the Waziri Adamawa has demonstrated in all of his Shenanigans is that he is a sore loser. Will he gain what he failed to get at the ballot through his present indecent and unpatriotic overseas search and unfounded and hollow discovery, making a mountain where there is even no molehill, uneccesarily heating up the polity and denigrating the Justices of the Supreme Court? I don't think so!

-Rahman, former Editor of Thisday on Sunday Newspaper, is a Presidential Aide.

https://punchng.com/tinubus-certificate-setting-the-records-straight/?amp

30 years of defeat

Yoruba with their acclaimed advancement in education could only muster a Tinubu with questionable educational background. Tribalism na bastard.

And the miracle of finishing in 1970 from a school established in 1974? No explanation for that yet?

Record keeper continue I hope you have the record of his secondary school certificate and the transcript area where the school advised him to remedy his entering results

Getting admission is one thing and graduating is another thing

TUANKU:
Yoruba with their acclaimed advancement in education could only muster a Tinubu with questionable educational background. Tribalism na bastard.

What could the ibo race muster apart from human eating and cannibalism of the highest order and drug pushing accross the whole of Asia where not less than 500 of your youth have been executed and imprisoned. No race on the World rival this record
Leave Tinubu alone, he is not the reason you guys are backward and crime laded

ivandragon:
And the miracle of finishing in 1970 from a school established in 1974? No explanation for that yet?

Was that what took Atiku to US?

ican2020:
Record keeper continue I hope you have the record of his secondary school certificate and the transcript area where the school advised him to remedy his entering results

Getting admission is one thing and graduating is another thing

And the registrar claimed or insinuated he never graduated? And yet his certificate was issued to Enahoro Ebah?

Tinubu is a national disgrace

jogojogo:
What could the ibo race muster apart from human eating and cannibalism of the highest order and drug pushing accross the whole of Asia where not less than 500 of your youth have been executed and imprisoned. No race on the World rival this record
Leave Tinubu alone, he is not the reason you guys are backward and crime laded

I am not Igbo you brain dead stupid Yoruba bigot. Both ethnic groups are a cancer to Nigeria. Buruku son of a buruku father. Banza!

ivandragon:
And the miracle of finishing in 1970 from a school established in 1974? No explanation for that yet?

They deliberately avoided that and are busy searching for nothing

Tinubu confirmed he received his replacement certificate from CSU why him no give INEC that one.

Una dey allow tribalism make una look stupid.
Like that foolish keyamo saying Atiku should look for the 3rd party vendor that issued the certificate to the druggie forger tinubu to reject it before it will stand as forgery, how does it even make sense?

jogojogo:
Was that what took Atiku to US?

😁

See how you are disgracing yourself. Does it matter what took him to US?

If you accuse someone of stealing your phone but when you search you didn't find the phone but found your stolen wrist watch.

So you would keep silent and let him have the watch because what took you there was your phone?

Una sabi mumu unasef sha!

ivandragon:
And the miracle of finishing in 1970 from a school established in 1974? No explanation for that yet?

They will never say anything about that. Instead they’ll tell you it wasn’t presented to inec or atiku isn’t in court for that.

jogojogo:
Was that what took Atiku to US?

Ivandragon Just as I said. They won’t say anything about it but will ask another question totally unrelated to it.
No sir. That was not what took atiku to US. Now that I have answered can you kindly answer the man’s question? How did Tinubu graduate from a non-existent school?

jogojogo:
Was that what took Atiku to US?

Atiku's quest started out as personal to him & that has not changed.

However, his quest has led to further revelations which when juxtaposed with the lies from 1999, the claim that BAT was home-schooled & other inconsistencies in the history & Records of BAT, calls for further questions.

As President, BAT owes us answers. It is a moral burden on him & if he refuses to oblige the citizens whom he claims to 'rule' over, then the citizens themselves will carry out further investigations.

The BAT must be unmasked.

TUANKU:
Yoruba with their acclaimed advancement in education could only muster a Tinubu with questionable educational background. Tribalism na bastard.

Please, leave the Yorubas as an ethnic group out of this.

The issue is BAT as an individual & not his tribe.

Ofunaofu:
They deliberately avoided that and are busy searching for nothing

They are still cooking up the lie to use.

They want lies, forgery & identity theft to be swept under the carpet.

If it is proven that the secondary school is a hoax, then every other qualification that followed will be withdrawn.

I guess that was the irreparable damage BAT'S legal team was referring to.

DominusPrime:
Ivandragon Just as I said. They won’t say anything about it but will ask another question totally unrelated to it.
No sir. That was not what took atiku to US. Now that I have answered can you kindly answer the man’s question? How did Tinubu graduate from a non-existent school?

Lol.

What I find funny is that before atiku took up the matter, they were defending BAT blindly (see what I did there? BAT, blindly, lol). No facts, nothing.

Now that atiku has done some digging, they are now referring to the issues arising from the inquiry they condemned, to substantiate their points. Imagine.

enemyofprogress:
Tinubu's certificate: Setting the records straight

By Tunde Rahman

Former Vice President and roundly defeated presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was a pitiful sight to behold on Thursday at the Shehu Yar 'Adua Centre, Abuja as he sat like a wreck after addressing what he called a world press conference. He had gone on a wild goose chase to the United States in search of President Bola Tinubu's certificate.
The former vice president however returned empty-handed after spending a fortune. Atiku himself admitted his exploratory journey was at a hefty cost.

At the press conference, the Waziri Adamawa discovered no new thing; he found nothing incriminating or untoward against the President. He is only currently engaging in political sophistry. Apparently deluding himself that he came back from the US with a smoking gun, at his press briefing, he sermonised on the important issue of leadership and responsibility. Alhaji Atiku assaulted the memory of the late irrepressible lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, claiming Fawehinmi inspired his shameful, worthless and self-seeking expedition.

Commending David Hundeyin, the rabble rouser who styles himself as an independent journalist, whose work he also said inspired him, it became apparent that both Atiku and Hundeyin were actually working together to embarrass President Tinubu.

Overwhelmed by his inordinate ambition, the failed PDP presidential candidate also shamelessly called traditional, religious, community and political leaders in the country including Labour Party's Peter Obi and NNPP's Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso to rally round him in his political vendetta against President Tinubu.“This quest is not for or about Atiku Abubakar. It is a quest for the enthronement of truth, morality and accountability in our public affairs,” he said. And you wonder, what morality Alhaji Atiku was preaching. This is the same man who was indicted in the 2009 conviction of his accomplice, former United States Congressman William Jefferson, over bribery charges. Same man whose principal, former President Obasanjo, wrote a damaging testimonial on and whose years in Customs were signposted by corruption allegations.
If you have not read it, this is what former President Obasanjo said about Wazirin Atiku in Volume 2 Pages 31-32 of his book "My Watch": "What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time,a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest."

It is pertinent at this juncture to clarify some of the issues that emerged from the deposition by President Tinubu’s former school, Chicago State University, in order to understand Atiku’s deliberate and malicious distortion.
Speaking on oath in the testimonies contained in a deposition made in the Office of Angela Liu, Atiku’s legal counsel, in Chicago, US, CSU Registrar, Caleb Westberg declared that President Bola Tinubu attended and graduated with honours from the institution in 1979. He in fact asserted that President Tinubu is the same person who attended the school from 1977 to 1979. “We believe Bola Tinubu who attended CSU is the same person who is the President of Nigeria today. Tinubu is an unusual name in the US. He matched the records in the file against the information provided by the student or on behalf of the student.”

On the insinuation by Atiku’s lawyers that the Bola Tinubu who attended the school was a female on account of a clerical error spotted against Tinubu’s name, Westberg disclosed that the admission letter issued to the Nigerian President evidently proved he was a male and attended the school between 1977 and 1979.
Probed further to confirm if the Tinubu that enrolled at the school was a male or female, the registrar insisted, “Tinubu applied to the university as a male and a letter of admission was issued to a male.
“There were materials in Mr. Tinubu’s records that show he was a male in the application to CSU. Mr. Tinubu identified himself as a male. His letter of admission identified him as a male. It says: ‘Dear Mr. Tinubu’”, he said.

It is relevant to point out that in the US, premium is not placed on certificates, otherwise called diplomas, as we do here. Certificates are merely ceremonial. The emphasis is on transcripts. Employers and schools offering admissions for higher education will only ask for previous transcripts.
In most cases, the certificates are also printed by third party vendors. Many certificates are left uncollected because what is important is the transcript. The CSU has diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession.
“I have the diploma that was made available to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah in our possession because Mr. Tinubu did not pick it up. I do not have the diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession because he had picked it, ” Westberg clarified while responding to another question.

Other matters also came up during the over five-hour interrogation session that I do not want to bore you with in this piece. However, it is surprising that Atiku and co would claim President Tinubu forged his certificate simply because the CSU Registrar said it could not authenticate the certificate presented to him by Atiku's lawyer as the document Tinubu presented to INEC for the 2023 Presidential Election. He said he cannot confirm because only Tinubu has the certificate which he ordered and which had been picked up for him and that the school does not keep students'certificates. Nowhere in the interrogation did Westberg use the word fake or forged as Atiku's lawyer tried to make him say so. Fact is there is no scintilla of doubt that President Tinubu attended and graduated from CSU. As my colleague, Temitope Ajayi, pointed out in his widely-publicised tweet, “You can only forge a certificate you never earned." President Tinubu honourably earned his degree and he had no reason to forge the certificate of a degree he had in his kitty. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, with distinction. He was on the Vice Chancellor’s Honour List for all his years in the school. Insinuation by anyone that he forged a certificate he worked for is sad and misleading.

Indeed, attempts by some to liken the situation with those of the disgraced former House of Representatives Speaker, Salisu Buhari and former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun are disingenuous.
Former Speaker Buhari forged the certificate of Toronto University he never attended. He was removed from office for the forgery. Former President Obasanjo later pardoned him. As for former Minister Adeosun, those who brought her to limelight and sponsored her for the ministerial appointment arranged a fake NYSC exemption certificate for her to scale Senate screening. The same people did her in when disagreements broke out between them, giving her away as a certificate forger over which she eventually resigned. The cases are markedly different: President Tinubu earned his stripes.

In the final analysis, it is yet unclear how Atiku plans to benefit from whatever he claims to have brought back from the US. Certificate forgery was not pleaded in his election petition now at the Supreme Court. Without being a lawyer, this is a civil case and I understand you can't make new pleas or present new evidence in a case that has passed the court of first instance and is at present on appeal at the Supreme Court.

What the Waziri Adamawa has demonstrated in all of his Shenanigans is that he is a sore loser. Will he gain what he failed to get at the ballot through his present indecent and unpatriotic overseas search and unfounded and hollow discovery, making a mountain where there is even no molehill, uneccesarily heating up the polity and denigrating the Justices of the Supreme Court? I don't think so!

-Rahman, former Editor of Thisday on Sunday Newspaper, is a Presidential Aide.

Una go straight records taya @#tinubugate🤓
Record wey don bend, don bend🙄

garriAndsugar:
Tinubu confirmed he received his replacement certificate from CSU why him no give INEC that one.

Una dey allow tribalism make una look stupid.
Like that foolish keyamo saying Atiku should look for the 3rd party vendor that issued the certificate to the druggie forger tinubu to reject it before it will stand as forgery, how does it even make sense?

No be you dey talk, na smelly akpu dey turn una brain. Illiterate ipobs everywhere.

To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

ivandragon:
Lol.

What I find funny is that before atiku took up the matter, they were defending BAT blindly (see what I did there? BAT, blindly, lol). No facts, nothing.

Now that atiku has done some digging, they are now referring to the issues arising from the inquiry they condemned, to substantiate their points. Imagine.

I thought you were all saying he never attended CSU. Una just dey labour in vain, una see as Obi and Kwankwanso dey quick to reject Atiku, even no PDP Governor or NWC follow face for Atiku comedy press conference.

Pakute:
I thought you were all saying he never attended CSU. Una just dey labour in vain, una see as Obi and Kwankwanso dey quick to reject Atiku, even no PDP Governor or NWC follow face for Atiku comedy press conference.

There are a lot of narratives out there, so I would not blame you for assuming I said he never attended CSU.

Notwithstanding, can you tell us the magic of his secondary school certificate since you know more about the whole matter?

DominusPrime:
They will never say anything about that. Instead they’ll tell you it wasn’t presented to inec or atiku isn’t in court for that.

If we ask you why Obi no submit hin degree, una go say the minimum the law talk na school certificate.

ivandragon:
There are a lot of narratives out there, so I would not blame you for assuming I said he never attended CSU.

Notwithstanding, can you tell us the magic of his secondary school certificate since you know more about the whole matter?

Wetin concern me with the narratives una they trend from your whatssup group. Atiku wey enter America dey find CSU record, make una enter hin secondary school go find hin record join. We no dey bother about Atiku wey carry adult class diploma or Obi wey no submit degree certificate.

ATIKU IS A DESERTER. TINUBU IS NIGERIAN SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND THE FRANCIS DRAKE OF OUR TIME. CSU EVIDENCE IS AEQUUS NON IN NIGERIA. SO STOP THIS NONSENSE REPORTING.

Frankly even the most ardent of Tinubu fans, deep down in their hearts, would know that they cannot defend Tinubu on this one.

Mumu

jogojogo:
Was that what took Atiku to US?

So we should ignore that?