Foreign Affairs Minister Breaks Silence On Live TV Over Tinubu’s Certificate Controversy

Amidst the recent debate over President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s academic credentials from Chicago State University (CSU), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has emphasized that the president’s administration cannot afford to divert attention to what he deems as “trivial matters.” He further stated that these controversies serve as distractions.

During an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, Tuggar remarked that the ongoing dispute should not overshadow the significant international commitments and engagements undertaken by the president.

“There is a tendency to always try to distract and detain people on such frivolous issues as opposed to facing the major issues of development. We don’t have time to waste on that,” he said.

He pointed out that a former president, Muhammadu Buhari, faced a comparable controversy regarding his academic credentials.

“Nobody is wasting time about certificate qualification for somebody who has been a governor of a state, served two terms, and has been on the national stage as a politician.

“You remember that (former) President Buhari had to go through the same thing, where people were actually questioning whether he went to secondary school or not. Someone who had classmates was the captain; he was a head boy,” he said.

The minister asserted that none of the international gatherings the president has participated in have displayed any interest in this saga.

“The foreign leaders that we’ve been engaging and the international organizations clearly are disinterested in wasting time on such.

“We pay no mind to that,” Tuggar stated.

He further emphasized that, considering the critical state the nation currently finds itself in, Nigerians should not be overly concerned about certification. Instead, he urged them to direct their focus towards development. He also pointed out that the country’s population is increasing at a rate of 3% annually.

”The economic challenges we are facing – we shouldn’t be wasting time about whether some certificate, whether there is a T missing or an I hasn’t been dotted. That shouldn’t be our primary focus at the moment,” he said.

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had filed a request with the US District Court in Northern Illinois, seeking to compel Chicago State University (CSU) to release President Bola Tinubu’s academic records. Atiku argued that this information would strengthen his legal challenge against the President’s election in the February 25 presidential poll.

The PDP candidate sought these documents to be used in Nigerian courts to support his contention that Tinubu presented a forged certificate, claiming to have obtained it from CSU in 1979, which he submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the 2023 presidential election.

On October 1, a United States Court issued an order instructing CSU to release President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar by the following Tuesday.

On Monday, the university provided Atiku’s legal team with a collection of documents related to Mr. Tinubu’s education at the institution. This included redacted copies of certificates issued to other individuals around the same time the Nigerian president completed his studies at the school in 1979.

Additionally, the documents contained Mr. Tinubu’s admission records and a letter dated June 27, 2022, confirming his attendance at the university from August 1977 to June 1979, with a major in accounting. The letter stated that Mr. Tinubu was conferred a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honours on June 22, 1979.