In a recent development, the camps of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have raised objections to a BBC report that refutes claims of diploma forgery against President Bola Tinubu. The BBC’s Global Disinformation Team conducted a thorough fact-checking investigation, which concluded that there was no evidence to support the allegation that Tinubu submitted a forged diploma from Chicago State University (CSU) to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the February presidential election.
The controversy surrounding the authenticity of Tinubu’s CSU diploma had become a contentious issue, with his opponents, Atiku and Obi, taking him to task over the alleged forgery. Social media was abuzz with claims of fraudulent documents following the release of Tinubu’s CSU academic records.
The release of the president’s academic records came about through a judicial case initiated in August by former Vice President Atiku, who sought to challenge Tinubu’s electoral victory at the Supreme Court. Atiku accused Tinubu of falsifying his CSU Bachelor of Science in Business Administration diploma from 1979, which he had submitted to INEC.
In an effort to bolster his election petition appeal, Atiku filed a court application in Illinois, Chicago, to compel CSU to release the president’s academic records, including copies of diplomas, academic records with similar features, and documents certified by a former CSU staff member, Jamar Orr.
Tinubu’s legal team initially opposed Atiku’s request, citing privacy concerns. However, the US court decided that the request should proceed, and CSU subsequently released the academic records. As per the court’s ruling, Atiku’s lawyer questioned CSU registrar Caleb Westberg during a deposition.
The BBC’s investigation scrutinized the various diplomas issued by CSU between 1979 and 2003, including those related to Tinubu. The report highlighted three different diplomas attributed to Tinubu: the original from 1979, one he submitted to INEC (similar to 1990s CSU diplomas), and a later replacement diploma from the early 2000s that Tinubu never collected. Social media claims of forgery were based on comparisons between the INEC-submitted diploma and the 1979 CSU diplomas.
During Westberg’s deposition, Atiku’s lawyer emphasized that the diploma Tinubu presented to the electoral commission looked different from the 1979 CSU diplomas. However, Westberg explained that the variation was due to the diploma’s re-issuance in the 1990s, as CSU’s diploma template had evolved over the years. Therefore, if Tinubu had requested a new diploma in the late 1990s, it would have matched the template of that era.
Regarding a claim made by a Nigerian fact-checking organization that the CSU diploma did not include the phrase “with honors” under the degree name, the BBC found that this phrase was present in Tinubu’s diploma from the early 2000s, which was authenticated by Westberg during his deposition.
In response to the BBC’s report, Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, dismissed it as a propaganda effort by the Tinubu administration. He accused the BBC of being a willing tool in discrediting and downplaying the CSU diploma scandal.
The controversy has divided opinions in Nigeria, with supporters of both camps expressing their views on social media. Bashir Ahmad, a former Digital Communications Assistant to former President Muhammadu Buhari, declared the case closed following the BBC’s fact-checking report.
While the BBC’s investigation may have provided some clarity on the diploma issue, it remains a contentious topic, with different parties interpreting the findings according to their political affiliations.