A recent report by the BBC’s Global Disinformation Team has debunked allegations that Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted forged academic records to the country’s electoral commission. These allegations gained traction on social media following the release of President Tinubu’s academic records by Chicago State University (CSU) as part of a judicial case.
Key points from the BBC’s fact-check report include:
- President Tinubu’s academic documents were released by CSU as a result of a legal case filed by one of his political rivals, Atiku Abubakar. Mr. Abubakar sought to disqualify President Tinubu by accusing him of falsifying his CSU diploma in Business Administration awarded in 1979.
- In response to Mr. Abubakar’s request, CSU provided several diplomas issued between 1979 and 2003, including three different diplomas related to President Tinubu.
- The allegations of a forged diploma are based on a comparison between the document submitted by President Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the 1979 diplomas released by CSU.
- During a deposition, Mr. Atiku’s lawyer questioned Caleb Westberg, CSU’s current registrar, about the diploma submitted to INEC. While Mr. Westberg acknowledged that the diploma did not look like the samples from 1979, he stated that it resembled three of the diplomas CSU released to Mr. Abubakar.
- The discrepancy in the appearance of the diploma is due to its re-issuance in the 1990s when CSU had a different diploma template. President Tinubu reordered his diploma in the late 1990s, and it would naturally resemble the template at that time.
- Claims that the diploma submitted to INEC did not match CSU’s diplomas because it included the phrase “with honours” were debunked. This phrase was present in Mr. Tinubu’s diploma issued in the early 2000s, which was authenticated by Mr. Westberg during his deposition.
- Discrepancies in birth dates and secondary school attendance were noted in the released documents, with Mr. Tinubu’s official birth date being March 29, 1952. CSU documents indicated different birth dates, but Mr. Westberg suggested these could be due to human error.
- The BBC’s fact-check report concluded that there was no evidence to support the claim that President Tinubu’s academic records were forged.
The report emphasizes the importance of verifying information and addressing disinformation in the age of digital media and social networks. It also highlights the role of legal processes and factual evidence in resolving disputes related to public figures and their records.