Bola Tinubu’s Excess Luggage – The Certificate Saga

•Tinubu Submits INEC Form Without Listing His Primary, Secondary School Certificates
• He is Attempting to Hide His Real Identity—Detractors
• CSO Ask IG to Prosecute BAT for Forgery
• Detractors of Tinubu Are PDP Agents – Onanuga 

By Mike Odeh James
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, is facing a barrage of criticism after it was revealed that he did not submit copies of his primary and secondary school certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

While submitting his credentials as required by INEC, the South West political pugilist wrote that his primary and secondary school certificates were amongst important documents that went missing when security agencies raided his Lagos country home in the 90s.
In his affidavit attached to the INEC form, Tinubu wrote that his certificates were stolen after he ran into exile due to a threat to his life by the government of the late General Sani Abacha.

He wrote in the affidavit: “I went on self-exile from October 1994 to October 1998.” When I returned, I discovered that all my property, including all the documents relating to my qualifications and my certificates in respect of paragraph three above, had been looted by unknown persons.

My house was a target of a series of searches by various security agents from the time the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to adjourn following the military takeover of the government on November 17th, 1993. “
I was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Banking and Finance. I was also a plaintiff in one of the two suits against the interim national government in 1993.

“I went on exile when it became clear to me that my life was in danger,” Mr. Tinubu said in his sworn statement.

Ordinarily, the claim by Bola Tinubu should have come unhinged, but he had in 1999 also made claims that he attended St Paul’s Home School, Ibadan, from 1958 to 1964 and Government College, Ibadan (GCI), from 1965 to 1968, before proceeding to Richard Daley College, Chicago, from 1969 to 1971 and the University of Chicago. Mr. Tinubu would later disown the information in the INEC form in 1999 that he attended primary and secondary schools in Nigeria.

Following the recent release of the credentials of all standard bearers of the major political parties, political opponents of the APC flag bearer claimed that he is not who he is or what he claimed to be.

Some of them claimed that Tinubu removed primary and secondary school certificates in order to cover up for the discrepancies in his age, which may not have tallied if his academic history was scrutinized.

A civil rights Organization, Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy (CRPA), earlier in the week called for the arrest and prosecution of the APC presidential candidate for allegedly falsifying his academic qualifications.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the group asked the inspector-general of police (IGP) to initiate criminal prosecution against Tinubu within 48 hours.

Agu Kalu, CRPA legal adviser, said if the IGP fails to act, the group will ask the court for an order of mandamus to compel him to initiate the arrest.

Kalu said Tinubu is not qualified to run for president, alleging that he provided “false information” about the primary and secondary schools he attended.

“We wrote a petition to the IG on June 16, demanding the prosecution of Tinubu for providing false information on oath in his INEC form CF 001 which he submitted in 1999,” Kalu said.

“Since the IG is yet to act on the petition, we are using this press conference to call on the IG to do the needful. He is not above the law; nobody is above the law. Sections 191 and 192 make it a criminal offence to provide false information on oath.

“We are also calling on President Buhari to direct the IG to arrest and prosecute Tinubu for perjury, it is a very serious issue.”
The NGO is not only organisation or individual calling for the prosecution of Tinubu.

On Friday June 25th, 2022, a political party called the Action Peoples Party, APP, made a move to drag Tinubu to court in order to challenge his academic qualification to stand for the 2023 election.

Uche Nnamdi, chairman of the APP disclosed this in a press release. He said that the party had enough facts to nail Tinubu.
The party will rely on information he provided in his INEC forms. He said, “Tinubu’s new forms contradict his 2007 affidavit that he has primary school and secondary. He denied attending Primary and Secondary but claims a university degree in new INEC forms published today.

“He committed perjury as he abandons his earlier claim of attending primary school, sworn in an affidavit to run for governor but now claims not to have attended primary school.

“His new declaration in new INEC forms of not attending primary and secondary school (is) false information, in view of earlier nomination forms of 2007 on oath containing alleged controversial primary and secondary schools he claimed to have,” he added.
And in the run up APC presidential primary, a member of the party in Kano State, Sagir Mai Iyali, petitioned the John Oyegun-led committee asking Tinubu be disqualified from participating in the primary due to discrepancies found in his INEC filings.

Iyali in a letter dated May 17, 2022, stated that, “From the information contained in prior submissions to INEC, particularly in 1999, Mr. Tinubu presented a false claim, on oath, of his attendance at the University of Chicago from 1972-1976.

“It is clear now that these claims are false. Not only was this filed in the INEC form with a declaration on oath on December 20, 1999, it was also contained in an affidavit of loss sworn to before the High Court of Lagos, Ikeja Registry, December 29, 1998.”
However, the John Odigie Oyegun Committee went ahead to clear Tinubu.

TINUBU’S DEFENCE
However, Tinubu’s allies are also fighting back.
Bayo Onanuga, a close ally of the Jagaban hit back by saying that Tinubu never supply fake information to INEC not lied about his school.

He said Tinubu never submitted a false certificate in 1999, and that the Lagos State House of Assembly cleared him in its report.
“Asiwaju was exonerated in the house of assembly’s report because Senator Afikuyomi said he filled the form on his behalf then,” Onanuga said.

“The same certificate he gave to INEC this year, he used in 2003 and there was no issue then. Why are they raising issues now?
“What people don’t know is that when he was in exile, his house at Balarabe Musa Crescent in Surulere was burnt by the military and he couldn’t pick out a pin from the razed building.

“This was what happened that time and if in 2022, he (Tinubu) now drew blank on that session, what offence has he committed?”
Onanuga pointed at those making the claims that Tinubu committed perjury are agents of the opposition party.
Analysts are clear about one thing, whether those claims are true or not, Tinubu is carrying an excess baggage.