CSU Certificate Saga: No Time For Trivialities – FG Slams Critics

• Tinubu’s papers not forged – Aide

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Despite ongoing heated discourse in the public space over the controversies surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s academic records released by the Chicago State University (CSU), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, says the Federal Government cannot waste precious time on such “trivial matters”

This is as the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Temitope Ajayi, also dismissed insinuations by the opposition that the certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by President Tinubu was forged.

Tuggar said on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, that contrary to claims in some quarters, the certificate saga has not in anyway distracted the President nor tainted his recent engagements at the global stage.

The Minister, who noted that former President Muhammadu Buhari faced a similar attack from political opponents, said, “There is a tendency to always try to distract people with such frivolous issues as opposed to facing the major issues of development.

“We don’t have time to waste on that. 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 and was the captain? He was a head boy.”

Maintaining that during President Tinubu’s recent international meetings, no one showed interest in the controversy, Tuggar said; “The foreign leaders that we’ve been engaging and the international organisations clearly are disinterested (sic) in wasting time on such. We pay no mind to that.”

He said given the critical situation of the nation, Nigerians should concentrate more on development rather than mundane things such as obsession with so-called certification.

According to him; “With the economic challenges we are facing, we shouldn’t be wasting time about 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.”

Presidency Says Tinubu’s Certificate Not Forged

Also wading into the ongoing controversy, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity to President Bola Tinubu, Temitope Ajayi, said the certificate submitted by the president to INEC was authentic and not forged

Ajayi said in a post on his X page (formerly Twitter) that the CSU affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the university did not handle replacements for lost certificates.

Insisting that there was no truth in the forgery allegation, the Presidential aide said no one can forge a certificate which he already had, adding; “In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the University said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake.

“The University insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honours and, even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors, not the University. The claim that President Tinubu submitted fake certificate to INEC does not make sense.

“A man cannot forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”

However, contrary to Ajayi’s claims, the CSU had deposited that Tinubu had requested a replacement copy of his certificate but failed to puck it up.

On his part, Tinubu had in an earlier disposition claimed to have lost the certificates during the military crackdown on pro-democracy activists.