CSU Credentials: Atiku Mounts Pressure On Tinubu

Akani Alaka

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar took his battle for the 2023 presidential election many notches higher at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, as he rallied the support of other presidential candidates and indeed Nigerians for his bid to oust President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from office.
Determined not to let what many have described as his last chance to govern Nigeria slip away, Atiku had called on Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)’s Rabiu Kwankwaso to join his quest for “justice” in the certificate saga involving the President.
The press conference was called by Atiku following the release of Tinubu’s credentials from the Chicago State University, CSU to him.
Atiku and his lawyers have been battling to get the documents from the CSU for weeks preparatory to their filing of appeal against the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which throws out his petition against the victory of Tinubu in the 2023 general poll.
The former vice president’s move was based on the suspicion that the certificate submitted by Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may be forged.

‘A Task For All Of Us’

Speaking at his press conference in Abuja, Atiku believed he had a smoking gun capable of removing Tinubu from office and that he deserved the support of other presidential candidates as well as the generality of Nigerians in the task.
“Let me call on all well-meaning Nigerians, leaders of thoughts, our religious, traditional, community and political leaders and in particular, Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP and the leaders of every political party in Nigeria and indeed every single person who loves this country as I do and who wishes nothing but the best for this country as I do, to join me in this campaign to enshrine probity, accountability and the basic principles of justice, morality, and uprightness in our country and our government,” he said
“This is a task for every one of us,” Atiku added as he paid tribute to the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN who first raised doubts about documents submitted by Tinubu to contest the Lagos governorship election in 1999.
He claimed the late activist and lawyer inspired his resolve to go after Tinubu’s credentials. “Atiku can truly rest in peace in the assurance that what he started about 23 years ago has come to fruition. Gani’s vindication today gives credence to the saying that no matter how fast a lie runs, the truth will someday overtake it,” he said.
The Smoking Guns Against Tinubu

The former Vice President’s lawyer, Kalu Kalu subsequently took over the press conference to itemize issues in the credentials of Tinubu as released by CSU and the subsequent deposition by an official of the University which will form the kernels of the demand that the president submitted forged credentials to INEC to contest the election and that his victory should be annulled by the Supreme Court.
The lawyer said the certificate Tinubu presented to INEC ahead of the February 2023 polls was forged. He also claimed that the documents given to Atiku by the CSU showed that Tinubu’s “qualifying certificate from South West College to Chicago State University bears a female name, another evidence he said is a pointer that the qualifying document does not belong” to Tinubu.
Kalu also said that the documents from CSU showed that “Tinubu attended Government College Lagos and graduated in 1970 when indeed the school was established in 1974. Then, the same document, oral deposition, said the A in Bola A Tinubu is Ahmed but the NYSC certificate Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to INEC has Adekunle. I don’t know where Adekunle emerged from.”

Supreme Court and New Evidence

He also dismissed the claim that the Supreme Court would not accept fresh evidence as some lawyers have argued. Kalu said the Supreme Court could accept new evidence if the requirements were met and Atiku had met all the requirements.
However, a former Chairman, Section of Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL), Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani, said in an interview on Thursday that it would be difficult for Atiku to present his alleged findings about Tinubu’s credentials from the CSU as part of his appeal since he did not plead them at the lower court.
But he also agreed that there may be exceptions to the rule in some instances. “The Supreme Court will never, even the Court of Appeal, admit fresh evidence because their job is to review the decision of the court below and not to now evaluate any evidence. They don’t take any evidence but there are special circumstances under which fresh evidence can be admitted by the appellate court and that ground is maybe by the time you file the case that that evidence was not available,” Ubani said.
Atiku’s lawyer had said that his principal would tell the Supreme Court that the evidence was not available at the time his case was heard at the PEPC.

An Adventure In Futility

However, Tinubu and his supporters had repeatedly denied allegations of forgery. Indeed, a deposition by an official of CSU allegedly affirming that the certificate tendered by the president was authentic was circulated just before the Atiku’s press conference on Thursday.
A pro-Tinubu group, Tinubu – Team Beta Naija in a statement also issued yesterday said the deposition on the president’s academic records by Caleb Westberg, the registrar of CSU has vindicated him.
The group, in a statement jointly signed by its Director-General, Etinosa Igiebor and the Spokesperson, Mustafa Tijani therefore urged Atiku to stop “wasting his time” on the transcript and academic records of Tinubu. “It is laughable that people with questionable track records both in public service and private practice are on the chase of President Tinubu, whose academic, administrative prowess, and leadership capacity have been proven both locally and internationally.
“However, we are glad that the matter has been laid to rest as Caleb Westberg, the University Registrar at CSU, said in a deposition and under oath, that President Tinubu is a graduate of CSU and was issued a certificate after graduating from the school with honours,” the group said.
The former vice president insisted that nothing would make him take such advice at his press conference: “I will only drop the fight when the court rules. If the court rules that I am right, fine. If the court rules that he is right, fine. So that’s the end of the fight, because, at the moment, we are the Supreme Court, and there is no other higher court than the Supreme Court.”

Atiku also said his political relationship with Tinubu ended in 2007.

Atiku said this while responding to allegations that his quest for Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University amounted to betrayal as the President had in 2007 given him the opportunity of contesting on the platform of then then Action Congress. This was after Atiku was forced out of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP by his then boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.

But Atiku refuted claims that he betrayed President Tinubu politically, saying his political relationship with the President ended in 2007.

Abubakar explained that this was after he rejected moves to make Tinubu his running mate as presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

He explained further that he rejected the choice of Tinubu because he never believed in one religion joint ticket.

“Where is the ground for him to say I betrayed him?

“Those of you who are old enough will remember that in 2003 the PDP took over all the states in the Southwest, with the exemption of Lagos State where Tinubu was governor.

“I stood before the then President Olusegun Obasanjo and said `no; you can’t take Lagos State and he left it.

“So who is indebted to the other; is it me or Tinubu’’? Abubakar queried.

He said that after the 2023 presidential election a group of governors visited to placate him but he refused to give them audience.

He added that his search for the credentials of Tinubu who defeated him in the 2023 election was for the enthronement of truth and morality.