Chicago State University in the United States has reiterated that President Bola Tinubu attended the institution, graduated in 1979, and for the first time explained the inconsistencies in the signatures and dates in the certificates and certified true copies in the public space.
At the centre of the controversy are the year of graduation and the inconsistency in the signatures of the certificates paraded by the president.
Atiku Abubakar, a former political soul mate of the president turned rival had taken up the alleged character deficit by seeking to obtain Tinubu’s academic records from the CSU.
According to Atiku the certificate paraded by Tinubu was signed by university President Elnora Daniel supposedly in 1979.
Atiku, however, contended that Daniel, did not arrive at CSU until 1998 and left roughly ten years later and so could not have signed the certificate twenty years before his arrival at CSU. The Tinubu camp has not spoken on this issue.
However, clearing the fog in an affidavit, the university registrar, Caleb Westberg in a seven-point affidavit deposed at the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois in the case between Atiku and Chicago State University deposed that the difference in the date between the certificate paraded by Tinubu and the real year of graduation is on account of human error as the certificates are written by hand.
Further explaining why the certified true copy of the certificate was signed by a president who arrived the university twenty years after Tinubu graduated, the registrar said:
“There are certain differences between the diploma and the certified true copy because all diplomas are signed by the current President/Board Chair. There also differences in the font and seal on the diploma versus the certified copy because the university updated it font and seal after the diploma was issued.”
Explaining further, he said:
“The difference in the date of award on the diploma versus the certified true copy is likely the result of human error. The graduation date on the certified copy is typed in manually by a person and can be inaccurate.”
However, with President Tinubu continuing to remain under legal cover and not opening up on the issue, many Nigerians will continue to express some measures of reservation on the issues concerning his time in CSU.
