Chicago University: Foreign Affairs Minister reacts to President Tinubu’s certificate saga
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has described the controversy surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University (CSU) as mere distractions.
It will be recalled that the University had on Monday released the academic records of President Tinubu to the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, following the order the US District Court in Northern Illinois.
Atiku had approached the court seeking an order to compel the University to release the academic records of the president to him as they would boost his suit at the Supreme Court, where he has instituted a case to challenge Tinubu’s election in the February 25 poll.
And in compliance with the court ruling, the CSU gave the Atiku’s legal team a cache of documents connected to Tinubu’s education at the institution and copies of certificates with redacted names issued to other persons about the same time the Nigerian president finished from the school in 1979.
However, reports emerged that the certificate the president obtained from the CSU was different from the one submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, prior to the election.
Reacting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was featured on Channels Television on Wednesday, said the government is unbordered.
He referred to the allegations as mere “frivolous issues” aimed at distracting the administration of Bola Tinubu.
“There is a tendency to always try to distract people on such frivolous issues as opposed to facing the major issues of development. We don’t have time to waste on that.
“Nobody is wasting time about certificate qualification for somebody who has been a governor of a state, served two terms, and has been on the national stage as a politician.
“You remember that (former) President Buhari had to go through the same thing, where people were actually questioning whether he went to secondary school or not. Someone who had classmates and was the captain? He was a head boy,” he said.