It is quite absurd and a grand irony. Having lost his fragile petition against the outcome of the February 25, 2023, presidential election, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, proceeded on a voyage in futility to the United States of America in quest of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s academic records at the Chicago State University (USA). Acting in consonance with an order of a US court, the CSU released Tinubu’s transcripts and other documents to Atiku.
Alas, there was no smoking gun for Atiku and his legal team to feast on. The CSU registrar, Carl Wesberg, even deposed on oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the university with honors and that it is the same male student at the time between 1977 and 1999 who is President of Nigeria today.
Despite these glaring and indisputable facts, the Atiku team continue in their bid to nullify an already declared election result in which a clear winner has emerged by questioning the winner’s qualification to run rather than demonstrate concretely in court through incontrovertible evidence that he won the polls. What is ironical is that in the wake of the former Vice President’s barren mission to the US, a great deal of searchlight has been beamed on Atiku’s own educational credentials and identity.
Intense questions have been asked on social media as to why some of his certificates bear the name, Sadique or Sidique Abubakar and others Atiku Abubakar or Atiku Jokoli. The PDP presidential candidate has tendered the affidavit he swore to effect the change of name but has given no concrete reason why he did so. Thus, legitimate questions have been raised in several quarters on whether we are confronted here with a question of multiple identities for various purposes on the part of the PDP presidential candidate.
Given the tenacity and vehemence with which Atiku has pursued the issue of President Tinubu’s certificate from the CSU, one would think that he has a stellar academic record to flaunt. No, his educational trajectory is quite modest and largely undistinguished. This is unlike Tinubu who graduated on the honors roll with distinction as stated on oath by the CSU. Atiku holds a diploma from the School of Hygiene, Kano and later graduated with a Diploma in Law from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Institute of Administration. And in 2021, Atiku purportedly completed and bagged a Master’s degree in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University. But how could he have registered for and acquired a Master’s degree without the prerequisite of a first degree?
Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last election, has characteristically jumped unto the Atiku bandwagon. In his own press conference on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, he asked that President Tinubu re-introduce himself to Nigerians. This is of course quite farcical. Tinubu has been active in the public sphere playing diverse roles hugely contributory to the country’s socio-economic and political development over the last three and a half decades. He is certainly far better known than Obi across vast swathes of the country; a fact that was obvious from the spread of his electoral support across the country in the last presidential election.
But just like Atiku, questions have been raised as regards some of Obi’s academic records in the public domain. For instance, some have wondered how he got admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsuka (UNN) without the requisite O level credits in English and Mathematics. Again, it has been alleged that while he graduated from the UNN in 1984, he obtained his General Certificate of Education (GCE) certificate in 1986! There is certainly something fishy here. Again, an executive member of a faction of the LP who claims to have been a member of the panel that screened the then presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential poll, has claimed that the documents submitted to INEC by Obi namely the secondary school certificate, NYSC certificate and the UNN certificate bear different names.
Ordinarily, all these should be of no moment once elections have been held and the people have expressed their preferences at the ballot box. All these issues just like those raised against President Tinubu are pre-election matters and the Constitution as well as the Electoral Act have given ample opportunities for aggrieved persons and parties to raise objections to credentials submitted to INEC by contestants at the intra-party primary contests. This is particularly so since these documents are displayed by the commission for public scrutiny and possible legal action to address identified discrepancies before party primaries.
It is interesting that at his ‘World Press Conference’ at which he dilated on his purported discovery on his certificate fishing expedition to the US, Atiku posed as a moral crusader whose actions particularly in search of President Tinubu’s certificate were motivated by considerations of promoting ethical standards in public life as well as transparency and accountability on the part of public office holders. This is obviously a most intriguing transmogrification of the Atiku we all know too well into Sainthood. But does Atiku’s trajectory in public life offer a picture of adherence to or respect for the highest ethical standards? Do we now have on our hands a ‘born-again’ Saint Atiku? This self-portrait by Atiku and his handlers is entirely fictive, deceptive and self-serving.
In terms of character and moral integrity, Tinubu stands shoulder high above Atiku. A person’s character is best portrayed at times of crisis such as Nigeria was plunged into after the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the consequent emergence of the ruthless late General Sani Abacha to consolidate the stranglehold of military dictatorship in Nigeria. These were times when many men and women of supposed integrity sold their conscience to the military dictatorship for a mess of pottage. As Martin Luther (Jnr) immortally noted, it is impossible for a man of integrity to sit on the fence at periods of great moral crises.
What were the responses of Tinubu and Atiku to the crisis? Tinubu threw himself fervently into the pro-June 12 and pro-democracy struggle, committing all of his energy, time and resources to the struggle to force the exit of the military from the political space and bring about restoration of democratic governance. In taking this option, Tinubu put his very life on the line, his residence on Victoria Island was fire bombed and he ultimately had to flee the country on exile joining other Nigerians abroad to intensify the campaign against the perpetuation in power of the Abacha regime. That is character. That is integrity.
But what about Saint Atiku? How did he react at a time of severe political and moral crises for his country when so many patriotic Nigerians were laying down life, limb and livelihood to free their country from the humiliating jackboots of military misrule?
The Waziri Adamawa opted to join the defunct United National Congress Party (UNCP), one of the five parties famously described by the inimitable late Chief Bola Ige as the five fingers of the leprous hand of the Abacha administration. He participated actively in the Abacha junta’s political transition programme probably oblivious of the credibility crisis created for the process by Abacha’s scarcely designed self-perpetuation agenda.
On the platform of the UNCP, Atiku sought to contest for governorship of Adamawa State. To make matters worse, he reportedly kept a distance from his mentor and benefactor, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who had been incarcerated at Abakaliki prison for trumped up coup charges so as not to be in the bad books of the Abacha regime and jeopardize his governorship ambition. There can be no better example of a lack of fidelity to leadership, crass and unfeeling opportunism and deficiency in ethical integrity.
Ironically, seeking to play on sentiments, Atiku at his world press conference, invoked the name of the late great human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, (SAN) describing him as the motivating spirit behind his efforts to unravel the truth as regards President Tinubu’s certificate from the CSU. Yes, Gani Fawehinmi put up a strenuous fight to get Tinubu impeached as governor of Lagos State on the unproven allegation of certificate forgery but failed. The truth of the matter is that no one, not even the highly respected Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM), Chief Fawehinmi, could produce any documents purportedly forged by Tinubu.
Interestingly, however, as the late legal luminary battled the cancer that had attacked his body, Tinubu paid him a visit at his Anthony Village home in Lagos. A surprised Fawehinmi was appreciative of Tinubu’s gesture despite the previously strained relationship between them and he was full of approbation for the latter. Did Atiku even send a token message of sympathy to a man whose name he now exploits for political reasons at the time of his health travails? It is unlikely.
In any case, what was Fawehinmi’s perception of Atiku and the PDP administration under which he served as Vice President? In an interview in 2007, Fawehinmi was scathing in his critique of both. In his words, “I am appalled because if not for the feud between him (Obasanjo) and Atiku, we may never have known that Atiku was messing up with the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF). Obasanjo cannot say that he did not know that Atiku was stealing money from the PTDF, established in 1973, meant for the welfare of our country by training our brilliant students in the universities with the fund”.
Continuing, Fawehinmi lamented that “A fund meant for the improvement of our petroleum technology, a fund meant to ensure that the sons and daughters of poor parents who have the intellect can engage in research work. But alas, this fund was used, not only to pay lawyers but to establish just one company alone. Now, Atiku dipped his hand into it, (businessman Oyewole) Fasawe dipped his hand into it and Mr President dipped his hand into it for personal reasons. We want to have the full story of PTDF and other agencies of government”.
Culled from The Nation
