By Michael Chibuzo
In the light of the frenzy distortions of the contents of the 219-page depositions by the CSU Registrar on Tuesday by the Ellu P 75 and PDP coalition, I want to simply summarise the undiluted facts contained in the transcript in the most basic English possible considering the fact that English comprehension is now rocket science in Nigeria.
Caleb Westberg affirmed (i.e, stated) the following:
1. Bola Tinubu was admitted into CSU in 1976 from the South West College in Chicago, which is a feeder school for CSU. Bola Tinubu got GPA distinction in Accounting. He was very brilliant.
2. The transcript from South West College for Bola Tinubu that was used to admit him into CSU had F (female) written in the box for gender. This is a clerical error on the part of the college and is not UNUSUAL for such errors in entries to occur.
3. The female entry on the South West College transcript of Bola Tinubu not notwithstanding, the social security number (SSN) written on the same transcript clearly shows it belongs to Bola Tinubu who is a male. Social security number is unique to each individual.
4. In the CSU application form Bola Tinubu filled, he ticked MALE as his gender and in the admission letter given to Bola Tinubu, CSU addressed him as MR. TINUBU.
5. Bola Tinubu graduated from Chicago State University in 1979 with Honours in Business Administration. He took accounting courses just like in South West College and was exceptionally brilliant, making mostly A and B grades with just three C grades all through.
6. Upon graduation in June 1979, CSU produced a single copy of diploma for Bola Tinubu just like it does for every student. Bola Tinubu picked up his diploma and therefore NO COPY OR RECORD of the diploma was retained by the school.
The only records CSU retained from 1979 till date were the academic records including South West College transcript, copy of CSU admission letter to Mr. Tinubu, CSU transcript of Bola Tinubu among other less important academic/student records.
7. Diploma is viewed as a ceremonial document by CSU just like most American universities. They’re more interested in the ACADEMIC TRANSCRIPT of the students, which is the evidence of education from where diploma can be printed. That’s what they keep records of, and not copies of diploma certificates issued to its graduates.
8. Replacement certificates can be ordered by students and it can be ordered through third-party vendors who collaborate with CSU to generate a new copy of the diploma after confirming the academic records of the student in their possession. This is the widespread practice in most other American universities.
9. CSU don’t usually certify documents it issued or that which was issued through third-party vendors and have never been asked to certify any document until this present case. Registrar Westberg feels IT’S PROBABLY A NIGERIAN THING TO SEEK CERTIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS as that is strange to them in the US.
10. CSU cannot authenticate diplomas it issued or were issued by vendors BECAUSE TO AUTHENTICATE THEM MEANS THEY MUST HAVE A COPY OF THAT EXACT DIPLOMA to be able to compare and contrast but they don’t keep copies.
11. Any copy of diploma they have in their records belong to students who did not pick up theirs (either their original diploma or replacement certificate).
12. CSU issued Tinubu his original diploma in 1979 when he graduated. But they don’t have a copy of the certificate issued to Tinubu in 1979 because they don’t keep copies as earlier stated. Therefore they cannot authenticate any document you bring and say it’s from 1979 even if it was issued by the school.
13. Tinubu applied for a replacement certificate from the school in 1997. CSU produced one for him. The format was not the same as the 1979 format nor were the signatories the same. This is because diplomas are signed by present officials as at the time of re-issue.
14. The diploma of President Tinubu that was issued to Mike Enahoro-Ebah who used a fake court subpoena to request for Tinubu’s Certificate was a replacement certificate Tinubu requested but did not pick up.
15. The Registrar confirmed that the copy of the diploma Atiku’s lawyer showed him as what Tinubu submitted to INEC IS SIMILAR IN DESIGN AND SIGNATORIES TO THE THREE UNCOLLECTED DIPLOMAS CSU GAVE TO ATIKU which it marked as CSU 0008, 0009, 0010.
16. CSU confirmed that the Bola A Tinubu who graduated from the school in 1979 is the President of Nigeria today.
These are the facts which are incontrovertibly and unequivocally affirmed by the Chicago State University.
There is no single new fact or piece of evidence that Atiku can smuggle into the Supreme Court. For the avoidance of doubt and for those who may have forgotten what the Atiku Abubakar petition before the PEPT looked like, Atiku challenged the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on four grounds.
In ground four as spelt out in paragraph 146 of Atiku’s petition, it stated that “as at the time of the election, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election, not having the constitutional threshold.”
They did not provide further particulars to back up this ground seeking to disqualify President Bola Tinubu neither did they state the exact Constitutional threshold that President Bola Tinubu failed to meet. Atiku Abubakar only listed four documents in his List of Documents to be relied upon in the petition that had any information pertaining to President Bola Tinubu’s qualification to contest in the election and they include:
1. President Bola Tinubu’s INEC form CF0001 for Lagos State Governorship election 1999.
2. An Investigative report by Lagos State House of Assembly on allegations of Perjury and Forgery levelled against then Governor Bola Tinubu.
3. President Bola Tinubu’s Affidavit in Respect of Lost Certificate dated 29th December, 1998.
4. President Bola Tinubu’s INEC Form EC9 for the 2023 Presidential Election.
However during hearing of the case, Atiku’s legal team sought to tender additional documents that were not pleaded in their petition such as President Bola Tinubu’s certificate from Chicago State University, a purported Guinean citizenship passport, transcript from Chicago South West College, a ‘notarised judgment of criminal forfeiture’ of President Bola Tinubu’s assets over alleged drug trafficking in the US, and an NYSC Discharge Certificate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The legal team of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu objected to these documents being admitted as evidence. Obviously they’re inadmissible because they were not listed in the List of Documents accompanying the petition and the time for amendments to their petition had elapsed. In the judgment the PEPC Justices sustained the objection of President Tinubu’s counsel.
What this means is that the issue of certificate forgery was never pleaded to start with in the Atiku petition. Therefore, there is no ground challenging the originality of Tinubu’s Certificate in his original petition that will warrant appealing to the Supreme Court to give them leave to tender fresh evidence to support their claim. Atiku is simply building an imaginary castle in the air.
The circumstances that may even warrant the supreme Court to admit fresh evidence is such that the fresh evidence is to further support an existing particular explaining a ground of the Petition. In this case there is no particular in support of Atiku’s ground 4 alleging that Tinubu forged his CSU diploma that he submitted to INEC and therefore liable to disqualification.
Even if Atiku included the specific particular of forgery of Tinubu’s CSU diploma in support of ground 4 of his petition, the only way he can prove the forgery is to bring the one he feels is the original diploma and then subpoena the maker of that original (CSU) to APPEAR BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL to AUTHENTICATE OR DENY THE DIPLOMA.
Even at that, CSU will certainly affirm that Tinubu graduated from its University in 1979 and was issued a diploma as well as a replacement diploma in 1997 and for which they DO NOT HAVE COPIES and therefore CANNOT AUTHENTICATE OR DENY EVEN IF THEY WERE TO BE SHOWN THE ORIGINAL ISSUED TO TINUBU.
Atiku would then face an impossible task of proving that the diploma Tinubu submitted to INEC was forged because he needs to first bring that which ought to be the original (which obviously is in the possession of Tinubu ) and then get CSU to say it is forged (which is impossible because CSU do not have a duplicate copy with which they could compare. Case closed!
In all these, the transcript of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu whether from South West College or from CSU itself is totally IRRELEVANT in the whole proceedings because Tinubu DID NOT submit any transcript to INEC. It is therefore none of Atiku’s business if in Tinubu’s transcript from South West College, he was listed as a female, transgender or even an elephant.
From the foregoing you then begin to wonder what on earth motivated Atiku Abubakar the serial presidential election loser and the greatest election rigger in Nigeria (as he affirmed in his World Press Conference on Thursday) to embark on a fruitless journey to Chicago State University in search of what there is not. The only scientific conclusion is that he simply wants to start watering the ground for a 2027 presidential run.
To that extent one would say, he has done a fantastic job although many may not see it now. Atiku Abubakar by embarking on the CSU fishing expedition has succeeded in pushing Peter Obi to the periphery of political discourse in the past couple of weeks. The topic on the lips of Obidients has been Chicago and Atiku Abubakar. Peter Obi is forced to now increasingly be on alert for any bad or tragic news to tweet about so as to remain relevant.
Many Obidients (without even realising it now), are now working for Atiku Abubakar. They convince themselves with the maxim that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Some Obidients I know are even saying that Atiku is Cumming! I mean coming! To further underscore my theory, Atiku in his World Press Conference simply tried to present himself as the Seeker of Justice and called on the lesser losing Presidential candidates, Mr. Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to ‘join him’ in the fight for justice.
In a typical fashion of a politician declaring his intention to run for president again, he used the platform to state that HE WILL NOT RUN A MUSLIM MUSLIM TICKET. The key phrase to analyse here is ‘I WILL NOT’ because it speaks of something in the FUTURE (2027). For all intents and purposes, I believe Atiku Abubakar has simply kicked off his 2027 presidential campaign, the Chicago misadventure is just his subtle entrance into the 2027 fray.
In all these, I pity the Andrew liver salt guy, Mr. Peter Obi and his Obidient Gbajues, they have been handicapped. As usual, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) has been monitoring Atiku Abubakar like a bat and doing his own longterm calculations and strategies. He has planned for this phase. This is why I rarely second guess President Bola Tinubu because he has proven that he is Nigeria’s greatest political chessmaster alive!