Reno Omokri, a Nigerian author and social media influencer residing in the UK, claimed all attempts to remove president Bola Tinubu from office will be useless in what he called the truth to be provided to his party.

Omokri, who asserted that Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP were among those who challenged the legitimacy of Tinubu’s academic credentials in a US court, claimed that Atiku’s failure to discredit Tinubu’s candidacy demonstrates that the PDP has run out of options.

Omokri wrote in an Open Letter to the PDP, which he posted on his official X account:

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“It has been said that a person’s worst enemy is the individual who feeds their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The 2023 election is over. Peter Obi defeated us, not Bola Tinubu. By contesting in an election he knew he could not win, Peter Obi stole away votes that would naturally have come to the Peoples Democratic Party (the Southeast has always voted PDP since 1999. Only 2023 was an exception). That is why we lost.

“As a true friend of the Peoples Democratic Party, I told Peter Obi this before the election. I also said the same thing to Waziri Atiku Abubakar. I said if we did not find a way to convince Peter Obi not to run, then we would have to take him on head-on because there was not enough space for both him and Waziri Atiku on the plinth of victory. But that is now history.

“The fact of the matter is that the current trajectory of our party is very and eerily similar to the election denial that prevailed in the Republican Party after the 2020 election.

“Pinning all our hopes on a smoking gun from Chicago State University that failed to manifest shows that we have reached the end of our ropes.

“Let us face the truth. AriseTV and other irresponsible media got our hopes up unnecessarily. Chicago State University never denied Bola Tinubu.

That was a big fat lie from Rufai Oseni, @ruffydfire a corrupt journalist sponsored by Peter Obi, a rival of Mr. Tinubu.

“A meticulous reading of Mr. Westberg’s deposition shows that he affirmed Mr. Tinubu three times as a bonafide graduate they once issued with a diploma certificate.

“Under normal circumstances, it would be apparent to us that there is no case here. Chicago State University, through its registrar, Mr. Caleb Westberg, has testified under oath that Bola Tinubu, the male now President of Nigeria, was admitted, attended and graduated from their institution.

“They never denied his credentials. What they said, both in their affidavit and the deposition that followed is that they could not attest to the diploma tendered by Bola Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission, not because Bola Tinubu did not graduate from their university, but because a third party vendor issued it, and certificates are more of “a Nigerian thing”.

“In case members of my party do not know, in November of 2022, this same Mr. Mike Enahoro-Ebah attempted to disqualify Mr. Tinubu on exactly these same grounds, and an FCT Magistrate Court struck out his case without being assigned. And we think the Supreme Court will give credence to what a Magistrate Court dismissed?

“What do we now want to prove at the Supreme Court, even in the unlikely event we are allowed to present new evidence? That Bola Tinubu forged a diploma for a degree that he legitimately earned? If not for desperation, why would the great PDP that produced Presidents Obasanjo, Yar’adua and Jonathan even consider clutching at such weak straws? It is like saying a man forged a cheque for an account in his name!

“Bola Tinubu’s political foes have clutched at this straw before in 1999 and 2003 and failed. And that is what we now want to hold onto in 2023? Twenty years after it failed?

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“The people behind this desperation are almost all agents of Peter Obi. They don’t love Waziri Atiku Abubakar or the PDP. It is a strategy of using Waziri to fight Asiwaju, hoping they cancel each other and that a rerun election is ordered, which Peter Obi will win. They fail to consider that as of today, that is yes daddily impossible.

“Waziri Atiku Abubakar would have been a better President than Bola Tinubu. But we were outsmarted by Bola Tinubu. Our redemption will not come from Chicago. It will come from facing reality and ensuring we do not have a divided house in 2027.

“I have been more loyal to the PDP than those now trying to make something out of nothing. And if I cannot tell my party the truth, then to borrow the words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:19, I am of all men most miserable!”

During the 2023 general elections, Tunde Rahman, a former director of media and publicity for the Tinubu/Shettima campaign, blasted the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, saying that the PDP candidate had pitifully returned empty-handed after spending a fortune on a fruitless trip to the United States in search of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate.

Read also: US court rules in favour of Atiku, orders Chicago State University to release Bola Tinubu’s academic records

Rahman criticized Atiku’s most recent global news conference, which took place on Thursday at the Shehu Yar ‘Adua Center in Abuja, in a lengthy essay titled “Tinubu’s certificate: Setting the records straight” and posted on his verified X account.

The presidential aide added that Atiku is only currently engaging in political sophistry as a result of his string of defeats, saying that it was unfortunate for Atiku that he had not discovered anything improper or incriminating against the President.

He continued by saying that Atiku’s appraisal of well-known investigative journalist David Hundeyin demonstrates how the two men collaborated to malign Tinubu.

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He wrote:

“Former Vice President and roundly defeated presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was a pitiful sight to behold on Thursday at the Shehu Yar ‘Adua Centre, Abuja as he sat like a wreck after addressing what he called a world press conference. He had gone on a wild goose chase to the United States in search of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate.

The former vice president however returned empty-handed after spending a fortune. Atiku himself admitted his exploratory journey was at a hefty cost.

“At the press conference, the Waziri Adamawa discovered no new thing; he found nothing incriminating or untoward against the President. He is only currently engaging in political sophistry.

Apparently deluding himself that he came back from the US with a smoking gun, at his press briefing, he sermonised on the important issue of leadership and responsibility. Alhaji Atiku assaulted the memory of the late irrepressible lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, claiming Fawehinmi inspired his shameful, worthless and self-seeking expedition.

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“Commending David Hundeyin, the rabble rouser who styles himself as an independent journalist, whose work he also said inspired him, it became apparent that both Atiku and Hundeyin were actually working together to embarrass President Tinubu.

“Overwhelmed by his inordinate ambition, the failed PDP presidential candidate also shamelessly called traditional, religious, community and political leaders in the country including Labour Party’s Peter Obi and NNPP’s Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso to rally round him in his political vendetta against President Tinubu.“This quest is not for or about Atiku Abubakar. It is a quest for the enthronement of truth, morality and accountability in our public affairs,” he said. And you wonder, what morality Alhaji Atiku was preaching. This is the same man who was indicted in the 2009 conviction of his accomplice, former United States Congressman William Jefferson, over bribery charges. Same man whose principal, former President Obasanjo, wrote a damaging testimonial on and whose years in Customs were signposted by corruption allegations.
If you have not read it, this is what former President Obasanjo said about Wazirin Atiku in Volume 2 Pages 31-32 of his book “My Watch”: “What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time,a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest.”

“It is pertinent at this juncture to clarify some of the issues that emerged from the deposition by President Tinubu’s former school, Chicago State University, in order to understand Atiku’s deliberate and malicious distortion.

Speaking on oath in the testimonies contained in a deposition made in the Office of Angela Liu, Atiku’s legal counsel, in Chicago, US, CSU Registrar, Caleb Westberg declared that President Bola Tinubu attended and graduated with honours from the institution in 1979.

He in fact asserted that President Tinubu is the same person who attended the school from 1977 to 1979. “We believe Bola Tinubu who attended CSU is the same person who is the President of Nigeria today.

Tinubu is an unusual name in the US. He matched the records in the file against the information provided by the student or on behalf of the student.”

“On the insinuation by Atiku’s lawyers that the Bola Tinubu who attended the school was a female on account of a clerical error spotted against Tinubu’s name, Westberg disclosed that the admission letter issued to the Nigerian President evidently proved he was a male and attended the school between 1977 and 1979.
Probed further to confirm if the Tinubu that enrolled at the school was a male or female, the registrar insisted, “Tinubu applied to the university as a male and a letter of admission was issued to a male.

“There were materials in Mr. Tinubu’s records that show he was a male in the application to CSU. Mr. Tinubu identified himself as a male.

His letter of admission identified him as a male. It says: ‘Dear Mr. Tinubu’”, he said.

“It is relevant to point out that in the US, premium is not placed on certificates, otherwise called diplomas, as we do here. Certificates are merely ceremonial. The emphasis is on transcripts.

Employers and schools offering admissions for higher education will only ask for previous transcripts.
In most cases, the certificates are also printed by third party vendors.

Many certificates are left uncollected because what is important is the transcript. The CSU has diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession.

“I have the diploma that was made available to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah in our possession because Mr. Tinubu did not pick it up.

I do not have the diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession because he had picked it, ” Westberg clarified while responding to another question.

“Other matters also came up during the over five-hour interrogation session that I do not want to bore you with in this piece.

However, it is surprising that Atiku and co would claim President Tinubu forged his certificate simply because the CSU Registrar said it could not authenticate the certificate presented to him by Atiku’s lawyer as the document Tinubu presented to INEC for the 2023 Presidential Election.

He said he cannot confirm because only Tinubu has the certificate which he ordered and which had been picked up for him and that the school does not keep students’certificates. Nowhere in the interrogation did Westberg use the word fake or forged as Atiku’s lawyer tried to make him say so.

Fact is there is no scintilla of doubt that President Tinubu attended and graduated from CSU. As my colleague, Temitope Ajayi, pointed out in his widely-publicised tweet, “You can only forge a certificate you never earned.” President Tinubu honourably earned his degree and he had no reason to forge the certificate of a degree he had in his kitty. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, with distinction. He was on the Vice Chancellor’s Honour List for all his years in the school. Insinuation by anyone that he forged a certificate he worked for is sad and misleading.

“Indeed, attempts by some to liken the situation with those of the disgraced former House of Representatives Speaker, Salisu Buhari and former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun are disingenuous.
Former Speaker Buhari forged the certificate of Toronto University he never attended. He was removed from office for the forgery. Former President Obasanjo later pardoned him. As for former Minister Adeosun, those who brought her to limelight and sponsored her for the ministerial appointment arranged a fake NYSC exemption certificate for her to scale Senate screening. The same people did her in when disagreements broke out between them, giving her away as a certificate forger over which she eventually resigned. The cases are markedly different: President Tinubu earned his stripes.

“In the final analysis, it is yet unclear how Atiku plans to benefit from whatever he claims to have brought back from the US. Certificate forgery was not pleaded in his election petition now at the Supreme Court. Without being a lawyer, this is a civil case and I understand you can’t make new pleas or present new evidence in a case that has passed the court of first instance and is at present on appeal at the Supreme Court.

“What the Waziri Adamawa has demonstrated in all of his Shenanigans is that he is a sore loser. Will he gain what he failed to get at the ballot through his present indecent and unpatriotic overseas search and unfounded and hollow discovery, making a mountain where there is even no molehill, uneccesarily heating up the polity and denigrating the Justices of the Supreme Court? I don’t think so!”

Tunde Rahman is former Editor of the Thisday on Sunday Newspaper.

In response to a request made by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the United States District court has ordered the Chicago State University, CSU, to release every relevant and guarded records of Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

This was stated in a decision rendered on Saturday, September 30, 2023, in favor of the the complainant, Atiku Abubakar, by Judge Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois, according to Reportera.

In her ruling, Judge Maldonado disregarded President Tinubu’s objections to Atiku Abubakar’s court appearance.

The president asked the court to prevent the CSU from publishing Tinubu’s academic records while also preventing his opponent (Atiku) from taking further action.

Atiku had asked the court to order the defendant, CSU, to publish Tinubu’s academic records to prove claims that he (Tinubu) attended and graduated from the institution.

However, the court decided that Atiku Abubakar has a right to the papers and testimony that he demands the CSU produce.

The jury declared that it is not, in any way, siding with any of the parties, and as a result, it has no opinion on Atiku’s allegations and challenges against President Tinubu, his graduation from CSU, or the legitimacy of the outcome of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential elections.

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Instead, the jury finds that Atiku’s specific question is valid.

As a result, CSU has until Monday, October 2, 2023, to submit all the papers that the plaintiff has sought.

The jury also stated that Tinubu’s plea for a stay of this judgment would be rejected.

The judgement read:

“MINUTE entry before the Honorable Nancy L. Maldonado: For the reasons stated in the Court’s accompanying Memorandum Opinion and Order, the Court overrules President Tinubu’s objections [44] and adopts Judge Gilbert’s recommended decision [40]in full. The Court therefore grants Mr. Abubakar’s application under 28 U.S.C. § 1782.[1]. In reaching this conclusion, the Court emphasizes that it is expressing no view on the merits of Mr. Abubakar’s underlying claims regarding President Tinubu or his graduation from CSU, or on the validity of the Nigerian election. Nor is the Court taking any position on what any of the documents or testimony from CSU may or may not ultimately show. The Court simply finds, on the narrow question before it, that Mr. Abubakar is entitled to the production of documents and testimony that he seeks from CSU. Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for production Nos. 1 through 4 (as narrowed by Judge Gilbert and adopted by the DistrictCourt in its opinion) in Mr. Abubakar’s subpoena, by 12:00 p.m. (noon) CDT, on Monday,October 2,2023. The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Given the October 5, 2023 filing deadline before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Court will not extend or modify these deadlines. Further,the Court notes that at the recent emergency hearing, the possibility of a stay pending an appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was raised. The Court cautions President Tinubu that any request for a stay before this Court will be denied, as the Court finds any stay impracticable in light of the fast approaching Supreme Court of Nigeria deadlines. President Tinubu is, of course, free to request a stay directly from the Seventh Circuit should he file any appeal. Judgment is entered in favor of Atiku Abubakar.(ca,).”