The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has alleged that the recent certificate saga of President Bola Tinubu has further portrayed Nigerians as fraudsters and identity thieves in the global community.
Obi, who made this claim while addressing a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, alleged that Tinubu’s certificate issue has affected the average Nigerian within and outside the country.
According to the former Anambra State governor, uninformed outsiders now see every Nigerian as a fraudster, certificate forger, and identity thief.
“To the outsiders, the entire Chicago University matter, as well as Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s many other lingering identity question marks have further worsened Nigeria’s less-than-glorious image internationally,” Obi said.
He added “Uninformed outsiders now see every Nigerian as a fraudster, certificate forger, and identity thief. The controversy is unnecessary, and the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided.”
It would be recalled that Chicago State University had recently released Tinubu’s certificate and academic record, after the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, had secured the release of the President’s education records from the institution through a court subpoena against the disclosure by the President.
However, the released records by the American University earlier this month, showed that Tinubu’s 1979 CSU certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, was different from samples of the certificates the university issued to students that same year.
This has however attracted backlash from Nigerians, who alleged that the president forged the copy submitted to the INEC, asking him to resign honourable.
