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By Sunday Ani
Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s lawyer, Angela Liu, has made damning revelations about President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University (CSU), in the US state of Illnois.
This disclosure cones aftee the recent confession by Tinubu’s lawyers that the documents of his academic records submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 presidebtial elections were fraught with errors and inconsistencies.
Responding to Atiku’s petition at the federal court in Chicago, Illinois, USA, seeking to obtain Tinubu’s academic records from the CSU, Tinubu’s lawyers, had on Wednesday, agreed that there were errors in the academic certificate presented to the INEC by the President, but blamed the University’s clerk the errors.
Both the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku, and his Labour Party’s counterpart, Peter Obi, have asked Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to disqualify President Tinubu from the February 25 presidential election on account of forgery allegations brought against him before the tribunal.
A slew of court documents submitted by Atiku’s lawyers in the United States and Nigeria showed disturbing discrepancies and circumstantial fallacies in the documents purportedly obtained by the Chicago State University pertaining to Tinubu’s academic records from the university.
One of the documents, for instance, is the certified true copy of the certificate submitted by Tinubu to INEC on June 17, 2022.
According to Atiku’s lawyers, “This, purportedly, is the certificate issued to him by Chicago State University (CSU), showing that he attended the school, and evidencing the degree he was awarded.
“Another document is a copy of a letter dated September 22, 2022, from Mr Caleb Westberg, the Registrar of CSU attaching a copy of the certificate issued to Bola Tinubu in recognition of the degree he was awarded by the university.
“There is another document, which is a copy of the certificate forwarded by Mr Westberg, as mentioned above, in response to a subpoena that was issued to CSU in respect of Bola Tinubu’s academic qualifications and achievements.
“There is also a copy of the bio of Dr Niva Lubin-Johnson. Dr Lubin-Johnson was the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of CSU from January 2001 to December 2002.
“Also, is a copy of the bio of Dr Elnora D Daniel. Dr Daniel was the President of CSU from 1998 to 2008.”
Upon further examination of the documents is that while they all spoke to the same subject matter, which is Tinubu’s academic qualifications from the Chicago State University, they all bore different details.
“The document marked “A” is the certificate submitted by Tinubu to INEC. This certificate is in every material respect, exactly the same as the document marked “B” except for the following: Document “A” is signed by at least three people, whereas “B” is signed by only two people.
“The document marked “E” states that Tinubu was issued a certificate on June 22, 1979, but then proceeded to forward a copy of the certificate (“B”) dated June 27, 1979. Please note that “A” is actually dated June 22, 1979, but this document did not emanate from CSU. Only “B” did.
“It is clear that either “A” or “B” is fake (if not both). You cannot have two certificates issued by the same university, to the same person, for the same course of study, but issued on different dates and signed by two different sets of people.
“The documents “A” and “B” both state that Tinubu graduated with a BSc in Business and Administration, whereas, document “E” which came from the CSU states that he graduated with a BSc in Business Administration. It is important to note that the CSU’s website states that the College of Business offers a contemporary business programme leading to a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration or Masters in Business Administration (MBA). There is nowhere where there is any reference to “Business and Administration” throughout the website.
“If you look at both “A” and “B”, it would appear that one of them is fake. Further interrogation of both documents, however, tells that both certificates may well be fake, notwithstanding that “B” was purportedly issued by the CSU.”
The lawyers argued further it is physically imposdible for Dr Elnora D Daniel to have signed both certificates since she was only President of the CSU from 1998 to 2008. She was neither president of the university in 1979, when the certificate was purportedly issued, nor was she president in 2022, when the replacement certificates were issued.
“Certificate “A” was purportedly signed by two other people apart from Dr Elnora D Daniel. These names are not clear and it is indicative of a deliberate attempt to confuse the reader into believing the authenticity of the document.
“Certificate “A” was purportedly signed by Dr Niva Lubin. This is also physically impossible, as Dr Lubin-Johnson was the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the CSU from January 2001 to December 2002 only.
She was appointed to the Board of Trustees only in 1996 and was not made the Chairperson until five years later. Dr Lubin-Johnson was neither a member of the Board of Trustees nor its chairperson in 1979, when the certificate wad issued. She was equally not the chairperson in 2022, when the replacement certificate was purportedly issued
Another graphic discrepancy in the certificate emanating from Tinubu and the one presented by the CSU upon subpoena is that the two bore different letter fonts and logos of the Chicago State University.
Atiku, it will be recalled, had approached a Chicago Illinois District Court to subpoena a full discovery of Tinubu’s academic records from the CSU, where the president stated under oath to have graduated in 1979, having completed his undergraduate studies in Accounting.
Consequently, Tinubu had instructed his lawyers to ask the court to decline the request by Atiku, citing confidentiality.
