With the current position of things, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is presently parading a forged certificate from Chicago State University—CSU, must be sacked from office. Yes, this is the way to go in order to save Nigeria from further global embarrassment.
Although, the presidency can cook up all manner of lies in defense of Tinubu but the evidence of forgery against him in public domain, is quite overwhelming.
Now, let’s do a short rundown of the forgery for those who are still in doubt.
1. He stole an identity of a black American as the document from South-West College which he used in gaining admission into Chicago State University, belongs to a female.
2. The Social Security Number on the CSU certificate he presented, was issued in Virginia in 1976 to a female.
3. The Social Security Number since then has been used by Bola A. Tinubu and Abimbola Adenike Tinubu, a medical doctor in Louisiana, United States.
4. Abimbola Adenike Tinubu is suspected to be the real owner of the Cambridge GCE result in Physics, Chemistry and Biology, which President Tinubu presented to CSU for admission.
5. Officials from Chicago State University on Wednesday during deposition, disowned the certificate Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission—INEC.
6. They did not only disown Tinubu’s forged certificate, also, the stamp and other items on the certificate were completely disowned. The officials denied knowing where Tinubu got the certificate from.
7. And the claim that he attended a secondary school that did not exist till 4 years after he supposedly graduated from the university.
However, the National Assembly must rise to the occasion of doing the right thing by commencing the process of his impeachment.
While this process is ongoing, the Supreme Court on it’s side, should also be ready to descend very aggressively on him following the appeal lodged by Mr Peter Obi and his PDP counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar challenging his victory in the last election.
The apex court on several occasions has insisted that anybody found to have forged certificates to seek qualification to contest for any elective post in the country will not be allowed because of the criminality involved.
The Supreme Court noted that the issue of certificate forgery to secure eligibility for election is a serious issue that must not be allowed in the country’s body polity.
It is important to note that Justice Sidi Dauda Badeh in 2017 while ruling on the case of Okpokwu, Ado, and Ogbadibo Federal Constituency of Benue State, (House of Representatives) declared that Nigeria will be doomed when certificate forgers are allowed to take centre stage in the elections for political offices.
Justice Badeh who delivered judgment in the appeal filed by Honourable Hassan Anthony Saleh upheld his nomination by the Peoples Democratic Party—PDP as the candidate of the party in the 2015 National Assembly Election.
The apex court said the challenger to the appellant, Mr Christian Abba, who was laying claim to the ticket of PDP for the Federal Constituency must not be allowed to have his way because he had his hand soiled in a proven certificate forgery.
Abba who was a respondent in the matter was confirmed by the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi in Adamawa State to have forged a National Diploma Certificate in Accountancy upon which he was forced to withdraw from the same race in 2011. Yet in a dramatic turn, used the same forged certificate to secure PDP ticket in the 2014 PDP Primary Election.
Justice Badeh insisted that Supreme Court, being the highest court in the land must take the lead in righting the wrong so as to bring sanity into the murky water of the country’s electioneering process.
He said the murky water of the Nigeria body politics will remain murky and contaminated until the people who forged certificate with reckless impunity are shown the way out.
Justice Badeh in the case ruled that Abba has no basis to be in the race for the National Assembly election in 2015 having been found to have secured the eligibility through forged certificate.
“Let me say it here categorically and with emphasis that this court, being the highest court in the country must rise and take the lead in righting the wrongs in our electioneering process.”
“The murky water will remain contaminated in our body polity until the reckless issue of certificate forgery with impunity is thoroughly address and put to a final end in our own interest”.
The Apex court thereafter, nullified the nomination of Abba and ordered that the clearance issued to him by PDP for the National Assembly Election be withdrawn.
Kalu Nwokoro Idika is a writer and investigative journalist with NewsBand Newspaper.
kalunwokoroidika@yahoo.com
