Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Atiku Democratic Party has mocked President Bola Tinubu, asking him to reveal how he obtained a degree from Chicago University without attending primary and secondary school.

Mr Atiku, in a tweet on Sunday, said he wondered how Mr Tinubu got a certificate from the university, asking him to enlighten Nigerians on the matter.

The former vice president, who is challenging Mr Tinubu’s victory before the presidential election tribunal, recalled that Mr Tinubu, in 1999, claimed he attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos, and proceeded to the Children Home School, Ibadan.

“According to him, his next port of call in his educational journey was Government College Ibadan and, Richard Daley College and Chicago State University in the United States. Curiously, in 2023, Tinubu settled with attending only @ChicagoState.

“I am scratching my head. How is that possible? Methinks that all well-meaning Nigerians should be as confused as I am with Tinubu’s declaration that he had no primary and secondary education, yet he has a university degree. You may wish to #AskTinubu how he attained this feat so that we can learn from his ingenuity,” Mr Atiku said. 

Mr Atiku’s tweet sparked widespread reactions seeing the “AskTinubu” trend of X microblogging app on Sunday as Nigerians discuss Mr Tinubu’s academic records. 

Earlier in August, Mr Abubakar requested court approval to subpoena Mr Tinubu’s files domiciled with CSU because he believed the documents would clarify glaring inconsistencies in Mr Tinubu’s background, including publicly available documents that suggested the CSU in the 1970s admitted a female student bearing Bola Tinubu who was born on March 29, 1954.

Peoples Gazette had also reported that Mr Tinubu filed a motion to prevent a federal court in the United States from releasing his university academic records to Mr Abubakar, his principal opponent in the 2023 presidential election.

Mr Tinubu had also implicated a clerk at Chicago State University as responsible for irregularities that characterised a certificate the school reprinted in his name, according to new court filings seen by The Gazette.