Conceal my records from Chicago university to thwart Nigerian bloggers from damaging my reputation, Tinubu informs U.S. court.
Bola Tinubu has urged a U.S. court to conceal his Chicago State University (CSU) records because his image as Nigerian president is at risk of further being damaged by Nigerian bloggers, court filings that were obtained by Ejes Gist Newspaper.
Mr Tinubu has vehemently opposed a request for an order directing the discovery of his CSU credentials, claiming that releasing them would be tantamount to arming Nigerian bloggers with information to discredit and weaken his reputation.
Previous records released by the school in 2022 to Nigerian lawyer Mike Enahoro-Ebah, according to Mr Tinubu, have been turned into weapons by “bloggers to attack” his character.
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If the purpose of the application is to uncover ‘opposition research’ or provide fodder for news bloggers, then it is not proper,” Mr Tinubu said on August 23 through his team of solicitors led by Oluwole Afolabi and Chicago-based Charles Carmichael in response to the application filed by Atiku Abubakar, a major contender in Nigeria’s February 25 presidential election.
“In politics, opposition research (also called oppo research) is the practise of collecting information on a political opponent or other adversary that can be used to discredit or otherwise weaken them,” Mr Tinubu’s lawyers explained.
Mr Abubakar had requested that the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issue a subpoena to CSU in order to obtain Mr Tinubu’s records in order to clarify glaring inconsistencies in his gender, graduation date, age, and so on, but the president is fighting the application vehemently.
CSU had provided Mr Ebah with records in response to a previous subpoena in 2022 that showed a certain Bola Tinubu, born March 29, 1954, who attended the school during the same period as Mr Tinubu claimed in the 1970s, was a female.
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He also recently had his primary and secondary education removed from his records after it was discovered that the primary and secondary schools he listed under oath in his 1999 run for Lagos governor did not exist in Nigeria.
Mr Abubakar believed that the requested documents would reveal which early and high school papers Mr Tinubu submitted to CSU before being admitted to study there.
CSU’s response was first published in 2022 on independent journalist David Hundeyin’s website, where it was picked up and distributed to almost every Nigerian. The gender controversy dominated social platforms such as Twitter, now known as X, where the majority questioned Mr Tinubu’s eligibility to run for president and raised concerns about the allegation of perjury.
“Those proceedings revolve around a self-proclaimed Nigerian ‘public interest litigator’ who used a Chicago law firm to issue a subpoena to Chicago State University unilaterally (without court approval) to test the truth and veracity of Mr Tinubu’s assertions… that he attended various educational institutions located in the Chicagoland Area,” the president’s lawyers said.
“In response, Chicago State University allegedly provided documents.” “Those documents appear to have been used by the public interest litigator and bloggers to attack President Tinubu’s character,” the lawyers said, fearing that the release of the Nigerian leader’s records to Mr Abubakar would suffer the same fate.
Mr. Abubakar stated that he intends to use CSU findings to strengthen his argument before the Nigerian presidential elections petitions tribunal that Mr. Tinubu’s declaration as president by INEC should be annulled due to damning allegations of perjury, narcotics dealing, electoral fraud, and so on.
