By Paul Ibe
Since Tuesday last week when the deposition regarding President Bola Tinubu’s educational qualifications came to the fore in the United States, there have been several attempts to twist the facts of the matter, which deliberately aim to confuse the mind of the public concerning the matter.
Some media aides to the president have come out openly to ‘push back on the narrative’, while some media houses, especially one, have persistently slanted their story to justify a corrupted interpretation of the facts in the disposition.
Sadly, however, the truth of the matter remains that Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu falsified a document he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and swore an affidavit under oath to back up his forgery.
On page 26 of the deposition which is publicly available, the Registrar of the Chicago State University, Caleb Westberg under oath, was asked a simple question that, “CSU has determined that it does not have a true and correct copy of the diploma issued to Bola Tinubu is 1979, correct?
“To which the Registrar responded, “that’s correct.”
Also, on page 27, a similar question was put to Mr. Westberg: “So, CSU, after going through every diploma, was unable to find an authentic copy of any diploma that CSU issued to Tinubu in 1979. Is that correct?”
The CSU Registrar, in his response, said: “We did not find any diploma issued by CSU in 1979 to Mr. Tinubu.”
And coming straight to the specific issue of whether the CSU is aware of or in possession of the diploma that Tinubu submitted to INEC, to which Mr. Westberg simply said, “Correct, we are not aware of it.”
Indeed, anyone who has taken time to do a thorough reading of the deposition will come to the unambiguous conclusion that the footprints of Tinubu’s odyssey as far as the CSU documents are concerned is filled with profound forgeries and abuse of administrative due process.
President Tinubu’s supporters and spin doctors will want to force the narrative of, at least, “Tinubu graduated from the CSU down our throat, even when the narrative has no foothold in logic.
The question remains: How does a candidate graduate from a university that you were never qualified for?
According to information in the open, President Tinubu applied to the CSU with a pre-qualifying 1970 certificate from Government College Lagos, whereas the school did not come into existence until 1974. Maybe this should make Tinubu the first man ever to have an anticipatory certification from the school four clear years before the founding of the school.
Another mystery is that in addition to the non-existing Government College Lagos certificate, Tinubu presented a certificate from another school in the United States that belongs to a female candidate and a Cambridge HSC of 1970 – the same year he purportedly graduated from a secondary school in Nigeria.
Long before the CSU discovery of last week, Tinubu has had a history of forgery and perjury. In his form CF001 he filed ahead of his governorship election in 1999, Tinubu had claimed albeit fraudulently that he attended St John’s Primary School Aroloya, Government College Ibadan and Chicago University as different from Chicago State University. The late lawyer and human rights icon Gani Fawehinmi would have succeeded in bursting him but for the immunity he enjoyed as Governor of Lagos State.
President Tinubu must be a man of mystery. No wonder his supporters call him Idan (a distorter).
It is our contention that at the heart of the forgery scandal against President Tinubu is the question of integrity and morality.
If the President would not do what is honourable by resigning from office and saving the country an imminent embarrassment, at least his supporters should desist from telling shameful lies to confuse the public
Lastly, while supporters of the President are quick to reference his transcript from the Chicago State University as evidence of his studentship in the school, we are alarmed how his NYSC certificate bears Bola Adekunle Tinubu, even when the CSU said under oath that the middle name of “A” was never interpreted in any document in his file.
Every Nigerian who has undergone the NYSC programme understands that the names on the NYSC are never a creation of the candidate, but the official name that the student was officially known as, from their tertiary institution. Tinubu was allegedly never known as Adekunle at CSU. Thus, the only way to understand how Adekunle was smuggled on his NYSC discharge certificate can only be explained as a forgery.
Yet, his media aides will come to the open to make a shameful alternative fact.
It is even more shameful that just when this whole scandal continues to unfold, media handlers of President Tinubu have, from nowhere, smuggled a middle name of Adekunle into his Wikipedia account. The word Adekunle in Yoruba is a house filled with royalty. But in this instance, we daresay it is a house filled with forgeries.
It is, therefore, becoming very obvious that there is no end point to how President Tinubu and his spin doctors will continue to use one forgery to cover the other.
Paul Ibe is Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar,
Vice President of Nigeria (1999-2007) and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (2023).
ECA calls for support to women and youth entrepreneurs in transforming African trade
Addis Ababa, 8 October 2023 (ECA) – African countries have been urged to promote gender responsive and inclusive policies to support women and youth entrepreneurs to accelerate trade development in Africa.
Speaking at the 14th African Congress for Women Entrepreneurs and 4th COMESA Federation of Women in Business Forum, the Principal Regional Advisor for Regional Integration and Trade Division at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Brendah Phiri-Mundia, said women and youth, have revolutionized entrepreneurship in Africa and they are better positioned to boost trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The Congress ran under the theme, Economic Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Promotion for Women and Youth and support of MSMEs for realizing Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and Regional Integration in line with Africa’s Agenda 2063 and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The congress took stock of progress on tackling challenges in accessing economic opportunities faced by women and youth across the African continent.
Ms. Phiri-Mundia noted that the AfCFTA which came into force in May 2019, could advance the global and continental goals on gender equality and women empowerment.
According to the ECA, the full implementation of the free trade area will increase the value of intra-Africa trade to US$195 billion by 2045 compared to US$113 billion recorded in 2020 which is the baseline.
Women have made an undeniable impact in the entrepreneurial landscape with research indicating that Africa alone has more entrepreneurs than other regions for both females and males. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurs globally with approximately 26% of female adults involved in entrepreneurial activity.
The ECA’s 2021 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report estimates that reducing gender inequality will boost African economies by US$316 billion.
Ms. Phiri-Mundia stressed that Africa’s youth is a potent force for innovation and economic development with incubators, accelerators and government initiatives helping young entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality.
Recognizing the potential of women and the youth in business development, the ECA is providing support to Member States across the continent in the development of gender-responsive and inclusive policies and context-specific interventions to drive women and youth empowerment within the continental integration agenda.
“Support is being provided for gender mainstreaming in national and regional AfCFTA implementation strategies, capacity building of women’s business associations and MSMEs to ensure they also take advantage of the opportunities under the AfCFTA,” said Ms. Phiri-Mundia.
However, the challenges faced by both women and youth entrepreneurs cannot be ignored, Ms. Phiri-Mundia added, acknowledging the access to start-up financing, skills development, mentorship, promoted by various Women Business Associations and development partners to overcome the challenges faced by women and the youth.
The ECA has also stepped up its efforts to contribute to addressing the complex issue of collecting gender disaggregated data to support better policymaking and evidence-based advocacy across the African continent, said Ms. Phiri-Mundia, who represented the ECA Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist, Hanan Morsy.
These efforts include a joint project with UNCTAD and the UN Economic Commission for Europe to “develop a coherent approach to measuring the impact of trade on gender equality using official statistics and building on the existing statistical data and capacity of countries”.
She called for collective action to amplify collaboration in initiatives that address multiple barriers faced by women and youth which finance literacy and digital finance, apprenticeships especially in male-dominated sectors, digital skills training and profitability information across sectors.
The ECA is keen to deepen its partnerships and work towards a future where every woman and youth entrepreneur in Africa not only achieves their aspirations but also transforms their dreams into impactful, sustainable enterprises Ms. Phiri-Mundia said.
