War Of Words, As APC Tackle Obi Over Tinubu

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023, election, Mr. Peter Obi, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, were yesterday locked in a verbal war over the alleged identity controversy of President Bola Tinubu.

Obi had asked President Tinubu to save Nigeria and Nigerians further embarrassment by clearing the air on his identity, but the APC insisted the President had no identity crisis. This came as the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, said there was no evidence to show that Tinubu submitted a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

However, In a swift response, Atiku described the BBC report as a jaundiced and hatchet job.

Speaking at a briefing in Abuja yesterday, Obi noted that he, like many other Nigerians, had to answer embarrassing questions about the genuineness of the President’s academic credentials, especially his Chicago State University, CSU, certificate.

According to him, it is no longer acceptable for the President to hide behind a battery of lawyers and hordes of professional image launderers and journalists to mask his true identity because he is no longer a private citizen.

To end the controversies surrounding his identity, the former Anambra State governor reeled out his given name, his baptismal name, primary and secondary schools and universities he attended, and urged President Tinubu to personally address Nigerians and answer 14 probing questions.

Obi asked Tinubu to re-introduce himself, state his name, nationality, place of birth, parentage, primary and secondary schools attended with dates, universities he attended and certificates obtained, where and when he did his NYSC, and disclose if he had a change of name at any time and the circumstances.

Obi said: “Having followed the prolonged identity crisis that recently played out in the American court system and the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Chicago State University credentials of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I must confess that I am distressed as a Nigerian.

 In addition to the barrage of media frenzy that the matter has triggered at home and abroad, I have had the unwholesome burden of responding to embarrassing questions about Nigeria’s overall credibility as a nation to privileged audiences and individuals both at home and abroad in different parts of the world where I have travelled lately.

To outsiders, the entire Chicago State University matter and Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s many other lingering identity question marks have worsened Nigeria’s internationally less-than-glorious image.

“Uninformed outsiders now see every other Nigerian as a potential fraudster, certificate forger, or identity thief. The controversy is unnecessary, just as the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided.

Saving Tinubu, Nigeria, from undue embarrassment

“I believe Chief Bola Tinubu should have saved the nation and himself from this protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety.