EXCLUSIVE: TI, TMG boss speaks on Tinubu’s certificate saga, says BBC’s purportedly acclaimed ‘fact-check’ report unfortunate

*As he blames INEC, monitised party system for failed elections

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

What has become a national and international disgrace in the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate saga should not have been, if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had done its thorough job and political system in Nigeria had ensured candidates emergence at all stages and at all levels without consideration for money.

This was the position of Country Head of Transparency International (Nigeria), Mallam Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, in an exclusive interview with The DEFENDER from his base in Abuja, the nation’s capital, on Thursday.

Rafsanjani, who spoke via internet call taken in Lagos, said the president “has been extremely disgraced globally” by the almost unending revelations of alleged forgery, identity theft, drug related and other offences more of which will still come in the 2,500 records by the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI), United States of America later this month.

President Tinubu attracted international attention when he made frantic effort to block release of his academic transcripts leading the degree certificate he claimed to have been issued by the American state university upon graduation in 1979, saying it will cause him “severe and irreparable harm”.

However, upon release of the documents after Tinubu failed in effort to block, it turned out that neither did he graduate from the university because, the record shows that he was yet to write a failed examination in English and other subject as seen in the qualifying transcripts he used to enter the university, nor was the certificate he claimed to have been issued by the university and submitted to INEC was actually issued by it.

Buttressing his point of international disgrace the president has incurred from the saga, the international civil society personality, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, cited how his quest to meet with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the recent 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78) was turned down.

“He has been extremely disgraced globally. He went to have meeting with American president, they blocked him from seeing him. No European country president met him. He was disgraced internationally. That was why he had to come back without seeing any of those world leaders,” he said.

Commenting on the purported “fact-check” report by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa online, Rafsanjani, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), expressed discomfort that such report could come from the foreign medium, although he noted BBC is commercial business that not many viewers now watch.

He was, however, not surprised that such report of apparent twist with face of denial would greet the Tinubu’s certificate saga. What the transparent and accountability in governance activist worried about was the fact that BBC became the will tool for such syndicated report that further expanded the international shame for the country.

“But he has invested so much in the media and BBC is a commercial business. How many people listen, watch or read BBC?

“I doubt even that, that story came from BBC because BBC could not have concluded like that on matter in court or has been decided by court.

“It is good that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has taken them them up and they will now have to come out and clarify themselves on how they came about their report of no evidence Tinubu’s CSU certificate was forged after US District Court that was even at the instance of the president himself had decided and had taken its deposition on it,” he said.

This online newspaper reports that it was not possible for a media organisation like BBC to bring up any concluded report to say there was no evidence the certificate was forged without first being involved in the court process neither indicate any retraction of appeal ruling and deposition of the 32-documents handed to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on the of the Justice Nancy Maldonado’s court.

On how Nigeria got this level, he said “When somebody purchase power with money, he has done that to help only himself. It is thevreason he has pocketed some of the media. Pocketed the judiciary, pocketed the legisture leadership.

“So, we are not surprised that some public officials and politicians have no shame defending such nations and international embarrassment. They have no shame for tarnishing the image of the country that is at stake in this Tinubu’s certificate saga.

“The political elites in Nigeria don’t care about integrity.

“As TMG, TI Nigeria, we want to encourage the legisture to further review the Electoral Act 2022 to correct lapses seen in this year’s election.

“There should be an all-political parties national summit to reform the current party system as to if the need be, they devolve these and create another ones with restrict compliance with non-money concentrated system to ensure the much desired but yet to be achieved truly free, fair and credible election as clean process of choose leaders in Nigeria.”