The legal process initiated by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to ask Chicago State University (CSU) to discover President Bola Tinubu’s academic records has taken a new twist. In their filings, the President’s lawyers blamed the clerk of the 156-year-old school for the errors in his academic documents and certificate.
It will be recalled that the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had given Tinubu up until 23 August to make a formal filing on why his records should not be released to the petitioner, Atiku Abubakar.
However, in complying with the court’s directive, Tinubu’s lawyer said on Wednesday that an unidentified university clerk “unfortunately” made errors regarding the dates the school stated on his recently issued certificate and when he graduated, thereby creating “the appearance of differences.”
Tinubu’s new claim was made before Jeffery Gilbert, the judge hearing the case in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
Atiku had subpoenaed the CSU to discover Tinubu’s academic records, believing that such discoveries would shed more light on the controversies surrounding Tinubu’s educational claims.
There have been crises of authenticity regarding the documents that Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and a viral document that the CSU in the 1970s admitted a female student bearing Bola Tinubu who was born on March 29, 1954.
While President Tinubu claims to have been born on March 29, 1952, he has also listed 1954 as his birth year at various times.
The flame of controversy around President Tinubu’s academic records began to burn when, in 1999 during his run for the Lagos State governorship position, he claimed to have attended schools in Nigeria, including Government College Ibadan, which he later rescinded.
He also recently expunged his primary and secondary education from his records after discovering that other schools he listed under oath in his 1999 INEC form CF001 did not exist anywhere in Nigeria.
However, Atiku is seeking documents highlighting which early education credentials Tinubu submitted to CSU before being admitted to the university.
Atiku contends that Tinubu had presented contradictory claims in Nigeria and the CSU in responding to a previous subpoena.
Tinubu’s response, signed by his lawyers, Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, partly quotes, “Unfortunately, in responding to the illegal and invalid subpoena, CSU made several errors.
“CSU issued a new diploma for Bola A. Tinubu, but incorrectly wrote the date of graduation as June 27, 1979.
“The correct date was June 22, 1979, but that scrivener’s error – along with a change in the CSU logo, the font on the diploma, and leadership at CSU who signed the diploma created the appearance of differences between an earlier issued diploma and the one issued in response to the 2022 subpoena.”
