Tinubu Asks US Court to Keep Chicago University Records Secret to Protect His Image from Nigerian Bloggers

Bola Tinubu is requesting a U.S. court to keep his academic records from Chicago State University (CSU) private. He’s concerned that his reputation as a potential Nigerian president could be further harmed by Nigerian bloggers, as shown in court documents obtained by Peoples Gazette.

Tinubu is strongly opposing a request to reveal his CSU credentials, arguing that making them public would give Nigerian bloggers ammunition to tarnish his reputation and weaken his image. He claims that records previously released by the school in 2022 to Nigerian lawyer Mike Enahoro-Ebah were turned into tools by bloggers to attack his character.

Tinubu’s legal team, led by Oluwole Afolabi and Chicago-based Charles Carmichael, responded on August 23rd to an application filed by Atiku Abubakar, a prominent contender in Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election on February 25th. They stated that if the purpose of the application is to uncover information for use in opposition research or to provide material for news bloggers, then it is not appropriate.

Opposition research, as explained by Tinubu’s lawyers, involves gathering information about a political opponent or adversary that can be used to discredit or weaken them. Atiku Abubakar had requested the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to subpoena CSU for Tinubu’s records in order to address apparent inconsistencies in details such as gender, graduation date, and age. However, Tinubu is vigorously fighting against this application in an attempt to prevent it from moving forward.

While responding to a previous subpoena in 2022, CSU had provided Mr Ebah with records that showed a certain Bola Tinubu, born March 29, 1954, who attended the school at the same period as Mr Tinubu claimed in the 1970s, was a female. He also recently expunged his primary and secondary education 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 anywhere in Nigeria.

Mr Abubakar believed the requested records would show which early and high school papers Mr Tinubu submitted to CSU before he was admitted to study there.

CSU’s response was first published on independent journalist David Hundeyin’s website in 2022 where bloggers picked it up and circulated it to almost every Nigerian. The gender controversy dominated social platforms like Twitter, now called X, where majority questioned the eligibility of Mr Tinubu to run for presidency and raised concerns on the allegation of perjury.

“Those proceedings centre around a self-proclaimed Nigerian ‘public interest litigator’ who utilised a Chicago law firm to unilaterally (without court approval) issue a subpoena to Chicago State University “to test the truth and veracity of Mr Tinubu’s assertions . . . that he attended various educational institutions located in the Chicagoland Area,” said the president’s lawyers.

“Chicago State University then purportedly provided documents in response. Those documents have apparently been utilised by the public interest litigator and bloggers to attack President Tinubu’s character,” the lawyers pointed out, fearing the same fate awaits the release of the Nigerian leader’s records to Mr Abubakar.

Mr Abubakar said he intends to use findings from CSU to strengthen his argument at the presidential elections petitions tribunal in Nigeria that Mr Tinubu’s declaration as president by INEC should be nullified based on damning allegations of perjury, narcotics dealing, electoral fraud and so on.