CSU certificate saga: CSOs accuse Atiku of plot to cause confusion

A group of civil society organizations (CSOs) has warned Nigerians of the plot by the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to cause confusion in the country over the certificate of President Bola Tinubu from California State University (CSU).

The CSOs, in a press statement titled “The Enemy Within – Why is Politically Drowning Atiku Clinging to CSU Straw”, said they were appalled by the revelations from the registrar of CSU, Caleb Walesberg, who confirmed that President Tinubu graduated from the university in 1979, but also made some contradictory claims.

The statement was signed by Razaq Olokoba, Centre for Dignity in Governance and Ahmed Balogun, Front Line Socio-Economic Research Centre.

According to the press statement, Walesberg said: “We believe Bola Tinubu who attended CSU is the same person who is the President of Nigeria today”. He also said that there are three similar certificates to the one issued to President Tinubu on June 22, 1979, a copy of which was submitted to Independent National Elections Commission (INEC) as part qualification requirements to contest for the Presidency in the last general election.

However, he also claimed that “the copy of CSU certificate issued by the order of the court is different from what Tinubu submitted to INEC” and that “the Bola Tinubu who graduated from CSU was a female, irregularities in dates of birth et. nauseum”.

The CSOs said these claims were absurd and illogical, and that they believed that President Tinubu was the same person who had a distinguished 20-year management career at Mobil, served as a senator and governor of Lagos State, and won the presidential election in 2023.

They said they were confident that the outcome of the United States’ court order for CSU to release President Tinubu’s academic records to Atiku would have no bearing on the case at the Supreme Court, where Atiku is challenging the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) that upheld Tinubu’s victory.

They accused Atiku of being a “serial loser” who is desperate to bring down the administration of President Tinubu by creating a “pervasive confusion” in the polity over his certificate.

They said they were concerned that Atiku’s actions could instigate a “confusionist mass hysteria” that could derail the nascent democracy in Nigeria.

They urged Nigerians to be vigilant and resist any attempt by Atiku and his allies to destabilize the country with their “malevolent plots”.

They also called on the international community to support Nigeria’s democracy and not interfere in its internal affairs.