The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has said he has no qualifications to present to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Tinubu told the electoral commission that he didn’t attend primary and secondary schools, adding that unknown soldiers had stolen his university qualifications.
His claim is similar to the allegations made by the current President, Muhammadu Buhari, during the 2015 presidential election.
Though without primary qualifications, the former Lagos governor said he had two degrees from two American universities, which were also stolen by some unidentified soldiers during the military junta of the 1990s, according to Peoples’ Gazette.
The claims were reportedly made in an affidavit submitted by Mr Tinubu to the electoral office as of his eligibility filings for the 2023 presidential elections.
According to the report, Tinubu left the column for his primary and secondary education blank but marked business and administration in 1979.
“I went on self-exile from October 1994 to October 1998. When I returned, I discovered that all my property, including all the documents relating to my qualifications and my certificates in respect of paragraph three above, were looted by unknown persons.
“My house was a target of a series of searches by various security agents from when the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to adjourn following the military takeover of the government of 17th November 1993.
“I was the chairman of the Senate committee on appropriation, banking and finance. I was also a plaintiff in one of the two suits against the interim national government in 1993.
“I went into exile when it became clear to me that my life was in danger.”
It’s unclear about Mr Tinubu’s current honesty, but his claims in the 1999 and 2003 governorship elections indicated that he attended primary and secondary schools.
According to his previous claim, Tinubu attended St. Paul Children’s Home School, Ibadan, from 1958 to 1964, and his secondary education at Government College, Ibadan, between 1965 to 1968.
The former governor said that from his secondary school, he gained admission into Richard Daley College, Chicago, from 1969 to 1971.
The United States-based University had also confirmed that Mr Tinubu attended and graduated from its institution with a degree in business and administration in June 1979.
Tinubu’s claim was challenged by a prominent Nigerian lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, who later died of prolonged lung cancer in September 2009.
Mr Tinubu’s current revelation has attracted a political activist in Abuja, Ikenga Ugochinyere, who accuses the APC candidate of perjury.
Ikenga said Tinubu “commits perjury as he abandons his earlier claim of attending primary school, sworn in an affidavit to run for governor but now claims not to have attended primary school.”
The lawyer is arguing that the APC candidate’s new submission is a contradiction to his 2007 affidavits that “he has a primary school and secondary school” certificates.
