PT State of the Race: Tinubu’s “lost” certificates and Wike’s message to Atiku.

The aspect of the publication that concerns the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has predictably attracted intense interest. The candidate did not provide information on his primary and secondary education. He also did not attach the certificates for his tertiary education.

In an affidavit attached to the INEC form, Mr Tinubu claimed that his certificates were stolen after he was forced into exile by the military dictatorship of the late Sani Abacha.

He wrote in the affidavit: “I went on self-exile from October 1994 to October 1998. When I returned, I discovered that all my property, including all the documents relating to my qualifications and my certificates in respect of paragraph three above, were looted by unknown persons.

“My house was a target of series of searches by various security agents from the time the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to adjourn following the military takeover of government of 17th November 1993.

“I was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, banking and finance. I was also a plaintiff in one of the two suits against the interim national government in 1993.

“I went on exile when it became clear to me that my life was in danger,” Mr Tinubu said in his claim.

He had made the same claim of loss of certificates in his filings with INEC in 1999 and 2003 when he ran for governor of Lagos State. However, he had stated in 1999 that he attended St Paul Children’s Home School, Ibadan, from 1958 to 1964 and Government College, Ibadan (GCI) from1965 to 1968 before proceeding to Richard Daley College, Chicago, from 1969 to 1971 and the University of Chicago.

Old controversy reawaken

But those claims landed him in a bruising controversy in 1999, a few months into his first governorship term, a controversy that has since dogged his heels.

It began when some newspapers published a petition that Mr Tinubu had perjured and forged the credentials he submitted to INEC for the 1999 election. His chief press secretary at the time, Segun Ayobolu, comprehensively reviewed the controversy in an article he wrote in January this year, in response to an attack on the former governor after he declared his presidential bid.

According to Mr Ayobolu: “The kernel of their allegations were: (1) that there was a discrepancy in the age of the governor since the profile published during his inauguration stated that he was born in 1952 and the age on his transcript at the Chicago State University claimed that he was born in 1954; (2) that the governor did not attend Government College, Ibadan, as was stated in his profile and INEC FORM CF.001; and (3) the governor did not attend University of Chicago as claimed in INEC FORM CF and an affidavit sworn to at the Ikeja High Court of Justice on 29th December 1998.”

Following the publication of the petition in the newspapers, human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, who died in 2009, pursued a case of certificate forgery and perjury against Mr Tinubu until the Supreme Court dismissed the suit on the technical grounds that the governor had immunity against prosecution in court.

The court said only the state House of Assembly could investigate Mr Tinubu and punish him if found to have committed acts constituting gross misconduct.

On September 21, 1999, the House set up a five-member ad hoc committee to investigate the allegations. The members of the committee were Babajide Omoworare (Chairman), Thomas Fadeyi, Adeniyi Akinmade, Ibrahim Gbabijo and Saliu Mustapha.

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