If the following is jumbled, it’s because the protagonists and Nigeria’s mainstream media aren’t doing enough to unravel the political smorgasbord. As the social media is muddling up the story, the protagonists are throwing potshots at each other.
As former Vice President Atiku Abubakar takes his doubt about the veracity of the Chicago State University certificate that President Bola Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, it becomes sub judice to discuss it publicly.
Failure to discuss the matter in public may sound like when a Yoruba deigns to publicly acknowledge that the King’s mother is a witch! The public sphere is an open space where citizens may interrogate issues.
The only risk to speaking in public is in a statement attributed to former Uganda despot, Idi Amin, who reportedly said that while your right to speak might be guaranteed, you freedom and safety after that would not be guaranteed.
The matter of Tinubu’s identity and the veracity of his Chicago State University and other certificates have become fodder for all manner of “experts,” who express their opinions as if they were “facts.”
One should point out that there are so many wild allegations and counterclaims made by partisans of Tinubu, Atiku, and Peter Obi, yet no one is quite clear about the true state of the matter.
As a self-appointed investigative journalist, David Hundeyin tells the court of public opinion that Tinubu presented a forged certificate to INEC, BBC Global Disinformation Team’s fact-check reveals the contrary.
Reuben Abati, co-anchor of Arise TV The Morning Show, thinks the Labour Party presidential P, Peter Obi, who told a press conference that Tinubu should just come clean about his identity, is merely seeking attention.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, no fan of either Tinubu or Atiku, has weighed in on Tinubu coming out to clarify things so that everyone would know the true status of things.
Solomon Dalung, member of the ruling All Progressives Congress whose tenure as President Muhammadu Buhari’s Minister of Sports and Youths ended abruptly in 2019, called the President out in a dramatic, if not juvenile, manner.
He posted his Ordinary Level, Bachelor of Law, Master of Law, and Call to Bar certificates on social media, and declared, “I voluntarily made my credentials available for public scrutiny. The reason… is stemming from the ongoing intense international and national brouhaha surrounding the issue of academic credentials in Nigeria.”
Then he added, “The President of Nigeria and his political allies are going from one court to another in America and Nigeria, regarding their credentials. Now, what is going on has made everyone in Nigeria, who has a certificate, a suspect.”
Some people have dug up their own dirt on Atiku, who they claim used the aliases, Atiku Kojoli, to write his first School Leaving Certificate Examination, and Sadiq Abubakar, to write his West African School Certificate Examination.
They ask if a man with such muddled records can question the credentials of Bola Tinubu, who now questions the credentials submitted to INEC by Atiku, who claims to have a Master’s degree, while his Bachelor’s degree is not quite pronounced.
To the unintended situation normal all fumbled up that has arisen from Atiku’s negligence, one can only say, “Aye nse ‘ru e,” which is Yoruba for things like that sometimes happen.
If Atiku thinks Tinubu partisans will just accept his explanation, it means that he is not fully prepared for the consequences of a hornets’ nest that he has stirred. Like elections, propaganda has consequences.
This should remind you of the “If You Tarka Me, I will Daboh you” tit-for-tat that came out of the corruption scandal that rocked the regime of the Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, in the early 1970s.
A group within the Labour Party threw their own dirt on Peter Obi, their party’s presidential candidate. They claimed that he used the identity of his late elder brother and that the names on his Ordinary Level, Bachelor’s degree and National Youth Service Corps certificates are different. Obi is yet to deny the allegation.
The Tinubu presidency, through Temitope Ajayi, its Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, seeing an opportunity to strike back and pay Atiku in his own coin, took an opportunity to throw its own vicious jab.
It says: “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar went to America, to look for President Tinubu’s certificate, and also to find out whether he went to school as a female or male, why (sic) he himself is not even sure of his own name in Nigeria.”
As smart-ass as Ajayi’s retort may sound, it does not really help to clarify the identity status of Tinubu. Neither does it confirm if President Tinubu obtained his Bachelor’s degree certificate directly from Chicago State University, or if he took the “Oluwole” option that some people insinuate.
Though you must also note the Chicago State University claim that the description of Bola Tinubu as a female in their documentation is a clerical error, Tinubu haters have conveniently ignored this pertinent claim.
To lay all these doubts and innuendos to rest, the President should just tell Nigerians who he really is and the source of all his credentials. If he had taken advantage of the CNN interview offer, maybe he could have nailed the issue permanently.
After all, Tunde Odesola, a columnist with The PUNCH, has “confessed” to his juvenile past of once tweaking his school results, the way former American President, Barack Obama, confessed to smoking marijuana.
But the communications group of the Tinubu Presidency does not seem to know its public relations responsibilities to the President. They should tease out the “facts” and the “truths” of the credentials of their principal and make a statement to clear the air. No congregant has ever been prosecuted for what they told a Father-Confessor.
The way to do it is to sit down with the President, for a frank and open discussion, after which they would frame their narrative. They should invite media executives for open, but off-the-record discussions, to seek a joint approach to broadcasting the adopted narrative.
The America-based Nigerian Tribune columnist, Farooq Kperogi, has done a lot of groundwork for them. All the communications group needs to do is walk the President through the findings for confirmation and vetting.
Simon Kolawole, Publisher of The Cable, who worked with Atiku’s TheWeek magazine that interrogated the Tinubu certificate gaps in 1999, is a resource waiting to be tapped– though he adds that TheWeek never queried Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate.
This is the way former American Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, used to do it, whenever he wanted the buy-in of the entire American media system in support of an unpopular policy that is, however, in the interest of the people of America.
But why doesn’t the mainstream media jointly take it up from the David Hundeyins and Reno Omokris, investigate the claims and counterclaims, and confront Tinubu, Atiku and Obi with whatever “truths” they find out?
This is the approach that will best serve democracy and the people of Nigeria.
