Against the backdrop of a backlash from Nigerians over the non-release of President Bola Tinubu’s academic records, Chicago State University (CSU) who have come under intense fire has been forced to lock its official X (Twitter) account.
Africa Today News, New York also gathered that the school also locked the comment sections of its LinkedIn and Facebook pages after Nigerians blasted and questioned how President Tinubu obtained a degree in the institution.
In response to the application submitted by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, at a US court in Illinois, the university last week gave conditions to grant access to President Tinubu’s credentials from the school.
Atiku and the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, are challenging the election and eligibility of Tinubu, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), before the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) in Abuja.
Earlier this month, Atiku sought approval at a United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, demanding that Chicago State University (CSU) release all of Tinubu’s academic records over irregularities in the certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This was prompted by his belief that these documents would help clarify significant inconsistencies in Tinubu’s background.
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In response to Atiku’s application, CSU agreed to release Tinubu’s credentials once the court issues the order. In a statement dated August 23, issued by the university and signed by the university’s counsel, the university noted that once they get an order from the court, the academic records of Bola Tinubu will be released.
However, it also said: ‘The student records Abubakar seeks from the University via a documents subpoena (Doc.1-1) and the information Abubakar seeks the University to provide under a deposition subpoena (Doc. 1-2) concern Tinubu’s private educational records. But since Tinubu has intervened to oppose this discovery, the University defers to Tinubu on the privacy issues implicated by Abubakar’s Application.
‘The University struggles to understand how – given that Tinubu did graduate from the University in 1979 – Tinubu’s grades and other student records from the 1970s and date and signatory information on subsequently issued ceremonial diplomas could have any bearing on a 2023 election challenge in a foreign country.’
The court then gave Tinubu until August 30 to answer why his academic credentials should not be released to Atiku and on August 23, in his response asked CSU not to release his academic credentials to the PDP candidate because, according to him, the case at the PEPT has closed and his credentials were not relevant to the suit.
Nigerians took to the social media pages of the school, accusing it of hiding information which is in the public interest of Nigerians, forcing the school to lock its pages.