Atiku rallies Nigerians after US school disowns Tinubu’s certificate

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar called for wide support Thursday as he builds a campaign against President Bola Tinubu who is facing growing condemnation after a U.S. university denied issuing the certificate he presented for his election.

The Chicago State University said while Tinubu attended the school between 1977 and 1979, it did not issue the diploma he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, meaning the document was forged.

“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,” Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, who initiated the legal effort to verify Tinubu’s papers in the U.S., said Thursday at a press conference in Abuja.

He called on “all well-meaning Nigerians, leaders of thought, our religious leaders, our traditional leaders, our community leaders, our political leaders,” to join a campaign “to enshrine probity, accountability and the basic principles of justice, morality and uprightness in our country and in our government.”

He specifically urged his other challengers in the Feb. 25 presidential election –  Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP –  to be part of that effort.

Abubakar and Obi want Tinubu’s election nullified.

“Today, we are called upon again as a people to uphold and defend the ground rules of elective government in our country. The constitution prescribes the requirements for those who seek the highest elective office in the land,” he said.

– Legal case

Abubakar launched a blistering and an apparently successful legal campaign in the U.S., choosing an unusual place to show that Tinubu presented a counterfeit school certificate ahead of the presidential election. The constitution disqualifies any Nigerian from an elective position on account of submission of a forged document.

While the president insists he attended Chicago State University, a point repeatedly affirmed to by the school, the PDP candidate focused his case on the authenticity of the document Tinubu filed with the electoral body, INEC.

After refusing for months to hand Tinubu’s documents over, the university did so on Monday on the order of a US. District court.

The papers showed Bola Tinubu attended Chicago State University, but also revealed the diplomas issued by the school the year Tinubu graduated differed from the one the Nigerian leader submitted to INEC.

The documents had other contradictions: the school addressed Tinubu as “Mr” in his admission letter, yet elsewhere “F” was ticked as his sex, suggesting the student was female.

– Deposition

In a lengthy deposition on Tuesday, the registrar of CSU, Caleb Westberg, said the gender box might have been ticked in error. Still, he affirmed the document Tinubu submitted was not issued by the school.

Told by Abubakar’s lawyer Angela Liu that the diploma provided to student Tinubu in 1979 could not have been the one the president submitted to INEC because one of the signatories did not arrive at CSU until later, Westberg replied, “That’s correct.”

– Supreme Court ruling

The Court of Appeal on September 6 dismissed Abubakar’s first challenge against Tinubu’s election. He has appealed to the Supreme Court and wants the new Chicago University documents to be part of his evidence.

Abubakar’s lawyers say while the Supreme Court traditionally does not accept new evidence, the confirmation that the president submitted an inauthentic document has met the requirement for that rule to be waived.

A ruling is expected before end of the year.

At the press conference, Abubakar said he would only end his challenge against Tinubu after the Supreme Court ruling.

The presidency has not responded to the new developments.