*Summary of issues and the cause of executive fury
*It’s not a Nigerian thing nor Yoruba thing to forge certificates – Farotimi
*Atiku’s case at Supreme Court will end up same way, says Oladotun Hassan in defence Tinubu on Arise TV
*Use of words: ‘Frivolous’ – Foreign Minister; ‘Omoluabi’ – Hassan, Dele
*Oladotun Hassan on thought about Tinubu resigning, calls Atiku a liar
*Issue of Nigerian judiciary
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
He said the Supreme Court has the power to decide whether the alleged ‘forgery’ can be admitted as evidence against Tinubu.
There was a twist to the narrative about allegation of certificate forgery by President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as it turned out that Nigerians who are learned have been divided about a matter that courts of jurisdiction in the United States of America disposed of, from originating to appeal levels, within weeks in a way that many Nigerians have wondered such case would take over five years to resolve in own country.
The dispute that emerged from the development got to the point on Friday October 5, when two persons from the Nigerian side; one on the side of the law and nationalism, a lawyer and human rights advocate Dele Farotimi, and the other on the side of the defence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinub, Oladotun Hassan, who is also a lawyer and Chairman Eti-Osa Bar Forum, Secretary NBA Epe Branch and a member NBA National Security Agencies Relations Committee.
Anchored by Dr. Reuben Abati, the discourse was meant not to pin-point specific issues but for the guests to respectively comment on the certificate saga and the involvement of US Magistrate Court and District Court on the matter. According to Abati, the comments from the individuals were meant for views of the station to know where they respectively stand.
Summary of issues
The Chicago State University finally release the academic records of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to his political opponent, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in line with an order of a United States court.
Atiku, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 election, had requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery of Chicago State University’s certificate against Mr. Tinubu.
The allegation of forgery was one of those dismissed by Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) sitting in Abuja in the suit Atiku filed to challenge the election of President Tinubu.
However, a Registrar of the Chicago State University, Caleb Westberg, says a replacement of the certificate that President Tinubu submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), did not emanate from the institution.
Registrar Westberg, who was speaking under oath during the Deposition of Documents, specifically told the US court that he was seeing the certificate copy for the very first time in the proceedings.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, insists that the certificate that President Bola Tinubu presented to INEC was not forged.
Ajayi, who was making this position known via his X social media handle, said the Chicago State University confirmed that the President did not submit a fake result to INEC.
Ajayi notes that the Chicago State University registrar affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the university does not handle replacements for lost certificates.
He said there was no truth in the forgery claim adding that no person can forge a certificate he already has.Dele
The cause of executive fury
Anchored by Dr. Reuben Abati, Rufai Oseni and Ayo Maio-Ese, discussion on ‘The Morning Show’ programme was meant not to pin-point specific issues but for the guests to, respectively, comment on the certificate saga and the involvement of US Magistrate Court and District Court on the matter.
According to Abati, who opened the floor for the talks, the comments from the individuals were meant for viewers of the station to know where they respectively stand.
Farotimi
Although Oladotun Hassan, a lawyer and NBA official spent all his time on the programme defending Tinubu’s position, the part that infuriated the Tinubu-led government thus attracting a National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)’s final warning to Arise TV was in the opposing views by the Nigerian Lawyer and Human Rights Advocate Dele Farotimi.
Farotimi had told the anchors that irrespective of what the registrar of the Chicago State University said, it is not a Nigerian thing, or a Yoruba thing to forge certificates.
He also said that the truth in Nigeria has become subjective, and that Nigerians have a duty to ensure that the truth does not become transactional, Farotimi spoke to what the CSU registrar said as he emphasized, “I am of the firm opinion that it is not a Nigerian thing to forge documents. Regardless of what the CSU registrar might have to say on the subject, it is not a Nigerian thing. The CSU was unambiguous in making clear that the diploma submitted to INEC does not emanate from it, that I think is about the only thing of legal consequence that concerns me as far as I am concerned, but when you now look to the broader issue of honesty, integrity, the image of the country, it doesn’t look good.
“But I will refrain from speaking to the issue. Regardless of what pundits might care to hear about it, it does not emanate from the Labour Party or Mr. Gregory Peter Obi. It’s solely an issue raised by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and it is for all of us to look beyond the politics and deal with the substance. Has this man forged a document? That question has been answered on oath and I leave it like that unless I need to speak further on such thing,” Farotimi, who was the first to be asked a question, said.
Oladotun
Asked to tell where he stands in the controversy, Oladotun Hassan described Atiku’s evidence from Chicago State University on or other US District Court as a voyage of a headless chicken saying at the Supreme Court, the case end up the same way.
He said, “The facts speak for themselves. From the documents and from the enquiries with CSU, I beg to disagree with in whole terms, that Asiwaju actually graduated from Chicago State University in contravention and against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s self destructive way of shame in view of the fact that, yes, it’s crystal clear that Asiwaju presented a genuine certificate and graduated from the university and that we must not be too overzealous to condemn or just name the dog a bad name on the premise of political affiliation to either Labour Party, which I know my brother and friend, Mr. Dele Farotimi might be on that same page.
“The effect is, did Asiwaju graduate? Yes, he graduated from the university with honours. How than do you now prove a case that is prima fersi evidence that you lay before a school. And there are processes, America, laws and system of education are different from Nigeria. We cannot holistically view for fact that privileged document which Atiku sought for was released and granted and that, on its own, ended the whole enquiry. Every other thing is just a voyade of an headless chicken, which will not bring home any other thing than the crudity, the hatred and political gymnastics just to create and to encourage the media more attack on the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which I believe, as the President of Yoruba Council Worldwide, Asiwaju is an Omoluabi per excellence.
“Except there are other things I want to hear on this table, as far as I believe, we run an acquisitorial legal system. You cannot …. investigation and lay before a court of competent jurisdiction, and without prejudicing the Supreme Court, which I definitely know is going to end up the same way because no substance. The candidates have 21 days to file all their petitions. All this chase of evidence aftermath of…to substantiate their case is just fruitless.
“So, I believe strongly that when they had a 14-days opening to present any query from INEC, no one raised all this. It is just the same Inunibini o kan aimowa’wu syndrome, that is, no matter how you can really look to satisfy mankind, they would definitely still want to bring that hatred to the fore heights of the world, which is really unfortunate,” Barrister Oladotun Hassan, speaking in defence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Arise TV programme, said.
Use of words: ‘Frivolous’ and ‘Omoluabi’
Responding to a statement made on Monday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, concerning the issue, Farotimi said, “He was correct to decree the forgery by Mr. Tinubu as frivolous. When you consider all the other things that are confronting Nigeria, it is particularly trivial to contemplate that the president ‘of the most populous black country in the world’ actually forged his certificate.
“Now, to move beyond that, because it is very easy to try and run away from the trivialities that the Tinubu administration has more or less forced on us. But if you dig deeper in the body of the same deposition, you begin to address the fact again that there are so many lies under guarding even the forged certificate itself, too many questions waiting to be answered, people might begin to talk about how evidence does not count again at this point, but again, it’s not like evidence has ever mattered in our space because, even the judiciary have found ways to make what matters not matter any longer,” Dele Farotimi said.
Farotimi also spoke to the use by Oladotun Hassan of Omoluabi, which the other lawyer guest used in describing President Tinubu in the wake of the huge image crisis that has characterised his person over the issue of certificate forgery as shown by documents from the US court and Chicago State University.
He said, “But there is something that I must respond to even though it wasn’t asked of me directly, and this is this idea that somebody is an Omoluabi simply because he is a Yoruba person,” the Human Rights Advocate continued by describing who an Omoluabi truly is.
“An Omoluabi comes with qualifications, it comes with qualification of integrity, of honesty, of pedigree, of history, that is why we have Oriki in Yoruba land, a person will be praised to his progeny…. And then the person must earn the tag of the Omoluabi, he must act with integrity, he must deal equitably with other people, he must be fair in his dealings with people.
“To now appropriate Omoluabi to everybody who answers the name of a Yoruba person even when the person has not acted in a manner that is suggestive of the person having the quality that will make the person answer to the name of Omoluabi, I reject that in its entirety. I am an Omoluabi, I am a Yoruba man, and I have not forged my certificate. So, it is not a Nigerian thing, and it is certainly not a Yoruba thing, and it is not an Omoluabi thing to do that,” Dele Farotimi replied to Oladotun Hassan in disagreement with his use of it to describe a man in the fact of yet ended huge allegation of forgery.
Oladotun Hassan on thought about Tinubu resigning, calling Atiku a liar
Of course it is not proven, until the matter is concluded, assumptions cannot be made. But in the event, because in other parts of the world a public office will not even wait for a ruling by the court, the honourable thing is to resign, it was said and Oladotun Hassan was asked what he thought about President Tinubu resigning.
Responding, the Eti-Osa Bar Forum Chairman, Oladotun Hassan, said: “From the content I still want to inform that except it’s explicitly spelt out. CSU is an institution. It’s not just the way we mob our institution here in Nigeria by campaign of calumny or by attacks. But as an institution, for the fact that they reckon with Asiwaju as a graduate, I still maintain that nothing can outweigh that. That was just the fact.
“There are other lies Atiku brought before the whole world. If you are telling too many lies, it will be quite unfortunate.”
The Tinubu’s defender was cautioned at the point of calling Atiku a liar but he continued.
He said, “For me, Asiwaju just like our organisation recently, holds a symbolism of Omoluabi. There are a lot of characters the he owns as value, hard work, vision, courage, integrity. These are why we owe him in high esteem. Until he’s proven otherwise, we will take the right decision to rethink and review our decision.”
Issues of Nigerian judiciary
Concerning the controversy that had come up in the Nigerian space from the pronouncement of the CSU registrar, and if the Nigerian judiciary will do anything with this information, Lawyer Dele Farotimi said, “Facts don’t matter in Nigeria any longer, that’s the truth. It’s gotten to the point where alternative facts have taken over the space, and truth itself has become completely subjective and transactional.
“The depositions are clear, and they are not ambiguous. The person representing CSU was unequivocal in declaring that the certificate submitted to INEC by the man known as Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not emanate from them. That is a matter that should be conclusively dealt with and forgotten about.
“Whether the Nigerian courts will find out a sufficient basis to do the needful, that is another argument that we can have at another time, but that we are still arguing about what has been conclusively proven in the deposition speaks a lot to the kind of country that we have become,” Dele Farotimi said.
Speaking further, he said, “Now, whether Mr Tinubu attended the University, whether he attended having the right qualifications, whether he lied about the schools he attended, whether Government College Lagos was founded in 1970 or 1974, that’s another story entirely.
“And the deeper you dig into this, the messier it becomes, and I actually think that we have a duty not to allow truth to become transactional and subjective. Facts on the ground are clear, the certificate submitted by Mr. Tinubu is a forgery. That is not my opinion, that is what the registrar of the school has declared.”
Farotimi was then asked if it was possible for fresh evidence concerning the alleged forgery of Tinubu’s certificate to be admitted into the Supreme Court in the Presidential election appeal case, and he said:
“Nigerian courts, over the past few years, have shown very clearly that we have good reasons to be worried about the capacity to deliver justice or to give equity.
“However, I do know that within the inherent jurisdiction of that court, it has the powers, if it so desires and if it finds the will to hear evidence that will suggest what the person who is sat in the highest office of the land is a career criminal, that is entirely up to the Supreme Court, It is up to the court to decide whether it is capable of saving what we have described variously as a democracy.”
He then said that this was a purely personal opinion of his, as he emphasized that he does not hate anyone, but rather, hates their deeds.
Farotimi then advised Nigerians, when asked the lessons that one could get from this matter, saying, “Just tell the truth. No matter how long you tell a lie, eventually, you will get found out. Just tell the truth.”
