The All Progressives Congress (APC) criticized Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday for his attempt to obtain President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University. Bala Ibrahim, the National Publicity Director of the APC, attributed this action to what he termed “post-election defeat disorder,” asserting that Nigerians had rejected the opposition party due to years of mismanagement. He advised the former vice president to exit politics.
Meanwhile, the United States’ District Court for Northern Illinois received President Tinubu’s certificates as ordered by Justice Nancy Maldonado. This occurred after Chicago State University complied with the court ruling and released the documents on Monday.
Chicago State University released the academic records following Atiku’s request, who was the PDP candidate in the February 25, 2023 presidential election. Magistrate Jeffrey Gilbert had granted Atiku’s request for the release of Tinubu’s academic records on September 19, but the President filed a review of the order. Tinubu’s lawyers insisted that the documents were irrelevant to Atiku’s appeal at the Supreme Court and requested a review of the ruling. However, Justice Nancy Maldonado overruled Tinubu’s objections and ordered CSU to release the president’s academic records.
Tinubu’s Certificates: Chicago University provides Tinubu’s records to Atiku
In the documents released by CSU, the institution responded to Atiku’s four requests. In response to the first request for a copy of Tinubu’s Bachelor of Science degree diploma issued in 1979, CSU provided several documents, redacting student names for privacy reasons. For the second request, CSU stated that they do not keep copies of student diplomas and could not locate the original diploma prepared for Mr. Tinubu in 1979. In response to the third request for copies of diplomas with matching font, seal, signatures, and wording, CSU provided relevant documents, again redacting student names. Regarding the fourth request for documents certified by Jamar C. Orr, Esq, CSU provided documents certified by Mr. Orr but noted that no documents related to communication between CSU and Mr. Orr were available.
The Coordinator of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala, SAN, was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, but the APC’s publicity director criticized Atiku for his actions.
The PDP insisted that Tinubu’s academic record vindicated its position, claiming that the CSU records indicated that the President presented conflicting documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). They stated their intention to present these documents before the Supreme Court as part of their case against Tinubu.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, Festus Keyamo, and Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, mocked Atiku’s efforts, describing them as futile and suggesting that he should accept defeat and retire from politics.
Lawyers evaluated the probative value of Tinubu’s academic records, with some suggesting that the documents may not add value to Atiku’s case at the Supreme Court since they did not relate to the allegations made in his petition. They also noted the challenges of introducing new evidence in an appeal case.
The development has shown that the President has nothing to hide, and claims regarding his graduation from Chicago State University have been consistent since 1999.
