Identity crisis: Come clean, save Nigeria from global embarrassment, Peter Obi tells Tinubu

Cyril Mbah, Abuja Bureau Chief and Chigozie Ikpo

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 election, Mr. Peter Obi has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to re-introduce himself to Nigerians and the world, to protect the image of the country in the global stage.
Speaking at a World Press Conference on Wednesday, in Abuja, Obi expressed sadness in the ongoing controversies following intriguing revelations made by the Chicago State University (CSU), on the authenticity of the credentials of Tinubu.
It would be recalled that the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, initiated a suit at the United States District Court of Ilinois, seeking the release of Tinubu’s academic records, from the Chicago State University.
Testifying under oath at a US District Court, the University through the Registrar, Mr. Carl Westberg, said the replacement copy of the Diploma certificate, presented to INEC was not authentic, also pointing out various variations of name, sex, and others, raising questions about the true identity of President Tinubu.
Obi expressed disappointment in the manner of revelations made so far and its implications on the nation’s global image and therefore advised the President Tinubu, to come clean and personally clear up the controversies surrounding his identity as it further dents our global image.
He said:”Having followed the prolonged identity crisis that recently played out in the American Court System and the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Chicago State University credentials of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I must confess that I am distressed as a Nigerian.
“In addition to the barrage of media frenzy that the matter has triggered at home and abroad, I have had the unwholesome burden of responding to embarrassing questions about Nigeria’s overall credibility as a nation to privileged audiences and individuals both at home and abroad in different parts of the world where I have traveled lately.
“To outsiders, the entire Chicago State University matter as well as Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s many other lingering identity question marks has further worsened Nigeria’s less-than-glorious image internationally.
“Uninformed outsiders now see every other Nigerian as a potential fraudster, certain forger, or identity thief. The controversy is unnecessary just as the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided.
“In my opinion, Chief Bola Tinubu should have saved the nation and himself from this protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety. Even this late in the day, however, Chief Bola Tinubu still owes the nation and the world a simple debt of obligation that only he can discharge.
“I call on him to immediately and personally mount the rostrum of his present high office to perform a simple task once and for all time. He should re-introduce himself to the nation he governs and to the world for the avoidance of further doubt.
“He should let the world know his name, nationality his place of birth, his parentage, the primary and secondary schools he attended with dates as well as the actual universities he attended and certificates obtained.
“He should indicate clearly where and when he did his National Youth Service. In addition, if at any time he has had a change of name, he should clearly state so and the circumstances. That, in itself, is no crime. This simple task should take no more than a few minutes.
“It requires no affidavits, prolonged court processes, spokespersons, agents, or surrogates. This task is one that only Chief Bola Tinubu himself through a direct personal statement can perform. He must perform this task urgently in order to lay to rest, once and for the last time, the many lingering doubts and valid speculations about his true identity.
“A leader cannot outsource a clear unambiguous personal statement about his identity to political surrogates, social spokespersons, lawyers, or any other persons no matter how highly placed.
“A matter of the personal identity of a leader is too sensitive and central to the functions of the office he currently occupies to be tried with, outsourced, or disguised under the cloak of officialdom.
“It is also about integrity, morality, values, and the rule of law that defines the character of the Nation and its people. In his present capacity as a leader of a nation of over 200million Nigerians, his true identity is a matter of grave national and international interest. The people deserve to know for a certainty the true identity of their leader and this overrides whatever rights he may have to personal privacy.
“In addition, the international community deserves to know the true identity of the person with whom they will engage in Nigeria. Having stood for an election to the elevated public office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Bola Tinubu has implicitly undertaken to cede the rights of a private citizen in favour of a life of open disclosure of his true identity, and other circumstances that may be of public interest. His personal integrity demands no less.
“The legitimacy of the office he currently occupies demands that much and even more. Respect for the integrity and esteem of the Nigerian nation within the community of nations makes it even more incumbent and compulsory.” Obi said
Meanwhile, the final leg of Obi’s case, seeking disqualification of Tinubu from the 2023 presidential election, is now pending before the Supreme Court of Nigeria for final verdict.

.President doesn’t have any identity problem, needs no re-introduction, APC blasts Obi
.Accuse him of riding on Atiku’s back to insult Jagaban

Meanwhile, Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused 2023 Labour Party Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi of being jolted out of deep slumber, and riding on the back of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar to make unsubstantiated allegations against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
National Publicity Secretary of the APC Barr Felix Morka, in a statement in reaction to Obi’s press briefing on Wednesday said “Peter Obi, Labour Party’s presidential candidate, hugged a podium to echo a script authored by Atiku Abubakar, his senior partner and co-traveller on a dark ignominious alley to nowhere.
“At his press conference earlier today, Mr. Obi blathered on about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s identity and academic record, like a broken voice note of Atiku Abubakar, cutting a pitiful profile as though forced to read a prepared statement by his unimaginative handlers, and mendacious associates in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“Unwilling to miss out in the orchestrated campaign of calumny against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his certificate from Chicago State University, Obi jumped on the tailboard of Atiku’s bandwagon to satisfy his uncanny and insatiable thirst for cheap media attention, long after his Labour Party had dissociated itself from a bogus call to action by the former Vice President.
“In his drivel, Peter Obi, demanded that the President reintroduce himself to Nigerians, as though the 8.9 million Nigerians who voted him last February were all groggy when they made their free democratic choice.
“Mr. Obi must know that President Tinubu does not need a re-introduction. He does not have any identity problem, except the one contrived by the Atikus and Peters of our political firmament.
“The 8.9 million Nigerians who voted him into office were, and remain, aware of his outstanding record and accomplishments as a defender of democracy, freedom, social and economic justice for over three decades. Nigerians know President Tinubu as a thoroughbred professional and former auditor and treasurer of Mobil Nigeria, now ExxonMobil.
“Nigerians know the President as a former Senator of the Federal Republic where he served as Chairman of the influential Finance and Appropriations Committee.
“They know him as a former Governor of Lagos State who designed and paved the pathway to the growth and prosperity of present day Lagos, the 5th largest economy in Africa.
“Nigerians know who they voted for as the 16th President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They voted for him with full faith and confidence that his track record and wide competencies would help in the re-engineering of our country’s economy for the good of the greatest number of Nigerians.
“In marked contrast, Nigerians have flatly and serially rejected Atiku Abubakar, and denied Peter Obi’s presidential bid in the last election.
“Beyond regaling Nigerians with false and embarrassing statistics for which he has gained notoriety, Peter Obi cannot be said to be known for any outstanding performance as Governor of Anambra State for eight years with no worthy legacy standing to his name.
“As for President Tinubu’s academic record at the Chicago State University, the facts are clear and settled except for those political jaundiced by the trauma of electoral defeat.
“The Chicago State University has unequivocally stated over and over again, and in a deposition, under oath, by the Registrar, Caleb Westberg that President Tinubu attended the school and graduated with Honours.
“Nigerians are now familiar with stellar academic performance of President Tinubu as evidenced by his transcript as released by the CSU with 18As, 10Bs and 3Cs grades.
“It is disturbing and utterly contemptuous of the courts of our land for the duo of Atiku and Obi to rail and pollute the public space with the very same issues that they have submitted to the court for adjudication. They have continued to perpetrate public deception, operating, simultaneously, as accusers and judges in their own base cause.
“We condemn the sordid and disgraceful attempt by Obi, Atiku and their cheerleaders to use the mainstream and social media to intimidate the judiciary, incite the public to violence, disparage Justices of the Appeal and Supreme Court, and we urge all well meaning Nigerians to condemn this anti-democratic and irresponsible conduct of both political naggers.
“For the records, our team of lawyers stand advised to explore all available judicial mechanisms towards bringing Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar to justice for their ceaseless contemptuous conduct.
“In our democracy, the office of the President is not filled by intimidation, blackmail or reckless self help. It is filled by the people, by their lawful votes at the polls just as they did on February 25, 2023 when they elected Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Morka concluded.

.As Atiku laments Tinubu’s forgeries and carry-over of English, Mathematics

Meanwhile, Paul Ibe, media aide to Atiku Abubakar in a statement has said that: “In the last 24 hours or thereabouts, we have seen an avalanche of trolls on social media and some sections of the mainstream media that seek to query the educational credentials of Atiku Abubakar.
“We acknowledge these inquiries as being healthy because they seek to probe the truth.
“We also notice that a lot of those who engage on the issue are supporters and aides of President Bola Tinubu.
“Quite a number of their engagements suggest presenting a duality of allegations of forgery that put Atiku Abubakar at a parallel with the forgery committed by President Tinubu in his documentations to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“To start with, Atiku Abubakar wrote his WAEC examination in 1968 with the name Siddiq Abubakar.
“Every elementary student of Islamic civilization will not find it hard to decipher that both Siddiq and Atiku are names that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) gave to his bosom friend, Caliph Abubakar. Therefore, Siddiq and Atiku are names that have a historical link to one person in Islamic theology.
Atiku Abubakar, knowing full well the importance of proper documentation, went ahead in 1973, more than 50 years ago to depose to an affidavit that he would wish to be known officially as Atiku Abubakar and still keeps the original copy of that affidavit up to this day.
“The meticulousness that has been displayed by Atiku in this instance shows an example of an upright man.
“However, while it has only taken Atiku less than 24 hours to come out with full disclosure on his public records, President Tinubu has lived behind the veil for more than half of a century.
“Since 1970 when President Tinubu came under public record to have falsified his academic credentials by claiming to have graduated from a school that was nonexistent, the narrative of his public profile continues to get dirty and messier by the turn of every decade.
“The latest in the rigmarole of President Tinubu’s life of forgeries and falsification of documents is the recent declaration by the Chicago State University that it is not the issuer of the certificate that Nigeria’s president presented to INEC in the run up to the 2023 presidential election – an act that constitutionally disqualifies the offender from the election.
“It is thus in this note that we call on President Tinubu to follow the example of Atiku Abubakar by coming before Nigerians and the world to explain how he got about his name, his educational background, the history of his early years, the true owner of the Southwest College transcript with which he got admission to the CSU, why he refused to go and retake his pre-qualifying examination for the admission and, more importantly, how he came about the discredited and forged certificate of the Chicago State University that he submitted to INEC.
“If President Tinubu refuses to take the lead set by Atiku, Nigerians and the world will forever judge him through a popular Yoruba proverb translation that says: “the upright walk on the straight path, only the crooked beat corners.”

.Atiku’s aide knocks BBC over jaundiced report

.Lampoons Tinubu over failure to hold FEC meetings

Also, Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, has lambasted the BBC over its fact-check report wherein it stated that there was no evidence to show that President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University diploma certificate was forged.
In a statement on Wednesday, Shaibu described the resort as a hatchet job, adding that the outrage it had solicited from the generality of Nigerians was enough evidence to show that the BBC goofed.
He said the BBC’s move was not surprising as it was in line with a previous statement he had issued wherein he had revealed that the Tinubu administration was set to unleash its full propaganda programme.
He said, “Sometime last week, when the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) issued a final warning to Arise News TV, we pointed out that the Tinubu administration was on the verge of launching a full blown propaganda and also intimidating ‘uncooperative’ media houses into discrediting and downplaying the CSU scandal. Sadly, we never imagined that it would be the BBC that would become the willing tool.
“It is unconscionable, appalling and preposterous that in this current information age, a foreign medium of repute could try to bamboozle Nigerians with a jaundiced report when the details are clear for everyone to see. Thank God young Nigerians have begun filing complaints against the hack writers who decided to soil their names for a bowl of porridge.
“We are not ignorant of the machinations of the BBC and its bias towards the current government. It is unfortunate that the BBC is not upholding the same standards as they would uphold in the UK where a Prime Minister was forced out of office for hosting a party during COVID-19. In 2009, columnist Mehdi Hasan wrote in the New Statesman that the BBC was biased ‘towards power and privilege, tradition and orthodoxy.’
“It is no wonder that in the last one year, the only news medium that was given exclusive access to interview Tinubu was the BBC. It is sickening that the BBC has decided to surrender its platform to a man who was accused of illegal drug trafficking in the United States.
“In the so-called fact-check report, the BBC decided to bury in the last paragraphs the fact that Tinubu claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos in 1970 when the school was established in 1974. Why didn’t these so-called fact-checkers reflect it on their headline?
“What is the essence of the report when it failed to uncover the most critical questions? If this report was aimed at fact-checking, it should have mentioned the year the certificate was obtained by Tinubu from the CSU and if the one he submitted to INEC is the same one he received from CSU.
“Tinubu said at Chatham House that he had received a replacement from CSU when the school said in unambiguous terms that he had not done so. What was the date he applied for his INEC replacement certificate from CSU, and when was it issued to him?
“The investigation was clearly carried out with a predetermined goal, which was to clear Tinubu. But let us ask the BBC if they would employ anyone who has had a case of drug trafficking in the US before and if he had three dates of birth in his official records as well as two different genders as well as attending a secondary school before it was established.”
Shaibu called on the BBC and other fact-checkers to be more circumspect, adding that their job was too sensitive to entertain errors.
“On November 28, 2022, Africa Check, one of the highly funded fact check organisations, claimed that the report by the opposition that Tinubu had lied that he attended Government College, Lagos was false.
“After Atiku Abubakar, through his daring court case, decided to blow open the lid, it turned out that the opposition was right all along. Till date, Africa Check has also not apologised for misleading the public. This is the new reality that we face. Who will fact-check the fact-checkers?”
Atiku’s aide advised media organisations to invest more in investigative journalism.
“If the BBC had invested in proper investigative journalism, it would have been the one uncovering some of Tinubu’s scandals instead of relying on Atiku for information on Tinubu’s certificates,” Shaibu said.
In the meantime, Shaibu has lambasted President Tinubu for holding just one cabinet meeting since taking office 135 days ago.
He said it was ironic that Tinubu, who has the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s history, had decided not to meet with them.
Atiku’s aide said, “Tinubu is obviously not ready for governance. After appointing 48 ministers – the highest in history – he has decided not to be meeting with them. This contravenes Section 148(2) of the 1999 Constitution, which expressly provides that the President shall hold regular meetings with the Vice President and ministers for the purposes of determining domestic and foreign policies of the government.
“It is bad enough that a man who claimed he would hit the ground running from day one took over 60 days to name all his ministers and took 84 days to inaugurate them. Even now, he has held only one cabinet meeting since the inauguration of the cabinet. For a man who has been gallivanting all over the place purportedly in search of foreign investors, it is laughable that he cannot even meet with his own team at home. Meanwhile, concerned Nigerians are asking #WhereIsTinubu?
“The reason is simple, though. His administration has brought nothing but untold hardship to Nigerians, including inflation, a very weak currency, and insecurity. He and his appointees are clueless. Hence, they have nothing to discuss.”