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From Kalu Kalu Agu
Public Forum
Farooq Kperogi, in bid to launder the image of Asiwaju Bola A. Tinubu, as the person who graduated from Chicago State University (CSU), made Tinubu’s case worse. I will respond to all the issues raised by Kperogi to demonstrate that they are all lies orchestrated to deceive Nigerians.
First, Kperogi claimed that “I took advantage of my being a professor here in the US and reached out to friends and colleagues at the school to help me verify this information.”
According to Kperogi, it was his unnamed friend, a professor of English at the university, who went to the registrar’s office and confirmed that Tinubu indeed graduated from CSU.
Kperogi is being smart by half. The issue in controversy has always been, “Is Bola. A. Tinubu, a male or female?” The purported registrar of CSU could not have disclosed the identity of the owner of the certificate, whether male or female, going by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which Kperogi even cited, that prohibits the release of the records of a student to a third party. So, how does the purported response from an unnamed registrar of CSU resolve the issue of identity? It is indeed laughable and reminds me of the claim by Tinubu’s lawyers that an unnamed Chicago State University clerk was responsible for all the errors associated with Tinubu’s certificate and records at CSU.
To Kperogi, “the yearbook photo of the 1979 CSU cohort features the headshot of an unmistakably younger Tinubu, even though his last name was misspelt as ‘Thubv.’ Why Tinubu? Why was his name misspelt? After all, he was not the only Nigerian or international student who attended CSU? If the university was able to properly spell the names of Adedoyin and Adadevoh, how come they misspelled a name as simple as Tinubu? How come Tinubu was the only graduate of 1979 who ended up being listed in the 1980 year book? How come the person who signed Tinubu’s certificate only emerged as head of the institution 19 years after he graduated from the school and was still the same person who signed the replacement certificate in 2022, a good 43 years? I still wonder how Kperogi can rely on a headshot in a yearbook to conclude that President Bola A. Tinubu graduated from CSU.
The information, which Kperogi is bandying, is complete hearsay (what in Nigeria is referred to as ‘them say’) and only meaningful in beer parlour banter and accordingly has no probative value at all. Kperogi cannot, by his mere assertion, contradict the information contained in the record released by CSU under subpoena.
Second, Kperogi asserted that “a search of Bola A. Tinubu in the archive of US College graduation records yields zero matches. This is not the issue in controversy. Kperogi went on to say, “But a search of “Bola A. Thubv” (which one Engr. Stanley with Twitter handle @Engr_Stanley_EC did) turns up the record of a male who graduated from CSU with a degree in Business Administration (and a concentration in accounting)”. This is bizarre. How can a professor believe such story from “one Engr. Stanley” whose real identity is unknown? How did the “one Engr. Stanley” get the records in the archives of US college graduation records? Nigerians will believe you more if you can liaise with the “one Engr. Stanley” to conduct the search by yourself and tell Nigerians the result of the search with verifiable links and or documents from the search. Anything short of that is a ruse.
Third, Kperogi asserted that “but the social security number in the Southwest College Transcript supposedly belonging to a female Bola A. Tinubu is 231-060-595. That’s an impossible numbering scheme for a US Social security number. Plus the transcript isn’t properly dated and leaves the spaces for date of birth and record of high school blank. These are no trivial red flags of inauthenticity.”
May I ask Kperogi, are these red flags of inauthenticity not enough compelling reason for the CSU to officially release the academic records of Bola A. Tinubu to lay to rest all these “ultimately self-contradictory inaccuracies and innuendoes” as captured by Kperogi, and set the records straight, which will make your image laundering business easier?
Kperogi’s intervention looks too much like a PR script, as it failed to touch on the red flag about the discrepancies in the logo and fonts of CSU and the fallacies of signatories in the certificate Tinubu presented and the one that the school registrar released. He didn’t talk about the errors that Tinubu’s lawyers talked about themselves. He deliberately ignored those issues.
He writes as though he was the one that enrolled Bola A. Tinubu, and knows all the facts about him.
Any objective article that borders on such a sensitive issue must leave room for scepticism. He didn’t do that. And, by the way, when the Richard Dailey school changes its name, does it change the gender of their students, too?
As of today, there is an academic record of Bola A. Tinubu belonging to a female obtained from CSU through a subpoena, which the CSU has not refuted. Kperogi was quick to inquire from his purported friend at CSU to find out the academic records of Tinubu but failed to find out from his friend if the records from CSU showing that Tinubu is a female are true or false.
How would Kperogi feel if his students confront him to say that the records show a female? How would you convince your student that the document is false? Can the citizens of the USA allow this controversy on the academic records of their President? Will the institutions in the USA not have resolved this controversy long ago and made their findings public? Why are you advocating a different measure in your country? This is highly unpatriotic from a self-acclaimed patriot.
Fourth, the analogy you gave on the locking of Aisha Rajvanshi and CSU Twitter accounts in response to “unremittingly vitriolic denunciations from some Nigerians” is faulty. Aisha Rajvanshi is a private person, while CSU is a public institution that serves the public, not only Nigerians, but the whole world. Which image is CSU portraying to the whole world? The CSU Twitter account is the virtual image of the school. By locking its Twitter account, CSU has unwittingly shut down CSU as an institution. Twitter is a media platform for dissemination and reception of information. A responsible and responsive institution cannot lock a channel through which the outside world could reach the institution just because some individuals raised some genuine concerns on CSU’s nonchalant disposition the academic record of just a student, which has been shrouded in controversy.
Fifth, Kperogi asserted that “it’s entirely possible to earn a degree in America without ever attending a secondary school.” Kperogi concluded by saying, “I am not saying that was what happened with Tinubu. I don’t have the facts to make that claim. But it’s reasonable to assume that, since it’s widely speculated that Tinubu changed the identity he had at birth, he disclaimed all associations with the schools he attended in his actual hometown in Osun and took a GED Test in Chicago.”
This statement from Kperogi indicts Tinubu.
Kperogi may wish to be reminded that the only reason Tinubu left blank sections of the primary and secondary schools he attended in 2023 was because he was avoiding lying under oath, as the form CF001 he filled with INEC while running for governorship elections in 1999 and 2003 is being doubted.
Kperogi has worsened Tinubu’s case. Having asserted that their was a change of identity without going further to show if it was done in compliance with due process, clearly demonstrates that all the purported claim of Tinubu graduating from CSU is doubtful. The law is very trite that anything founded on illegality cannot confer any advantage on anyone and, in this instance, the purported CSU certificate cannot confer any benefit on Tinubu.
Finally, Kperogi, in concluding, stated: “And why would Tinubu accede in writing to his academic records being released to political opponents?” My response to this issue is that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects only the genuine students. So far, the only academic record indicating the gender who has the certificate in controversy is a female and not a male and as such CSU is legally bound to release the records in order to absolve itself of any connivance.
As an international institution, it should be a source of grave concern that its reputation is at stake and, more fundamentally, the degrees awarded in the past and the ones to be awarded in the future will be highly suspicious.
If it does not bother you, Kperogi, it is a major concern to many Nigerians that the already battered image of Nigeria is now made worse by the controversy surrounding the identity of our President. The release of Tinubu’s academic records is for Nigerians to know the identity of their President and not for political opponents, as you asserted.
Kperogi, as a professor in a university in the United States, will your school admit someone with no passport, no identity and available records? This does not speak of the public image you’ve created for yourself over the years.
Kperogi is in another man’s country enjoying the fruits of their patriotic engagements to their national co-existence but he is there advocating a process capable of ridiculing Nigeria.
Kperogi should know that Tinubu’s academic documents are neing questioned. The tribunal is to rule on this issue. What do you think could be the reaction of Nigerians when the tribunal rules that the CSU certificate belongs to President Tinubu when the CSU has refused to release the certificate?
I am using this forum to join my voice to those of other well-meaning Nigerians in urging CSU to release the academic records of Tinubu to Nigerians. The intervention by Kperogi is a disservice to Nigeria.
•Agu is a legal practitioner
