With the unresolved certificate forgery scandal, President Bola Tinubu on Monday showed off his neighbour and classmate from Chicago State University.

Mr Tinubu, at the launch of the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme in Abuja on Monday, identified a Belarusian as Alex, calling him his schoolmate back then in Chicago.

“To all of you, Alex was my very good neighbour and went to the same school with me in Chicago,” Mr Tinubu said while the man stood up for recognition.

The president did not mention the other name of his schoolmate. However, he said Mr Alex is a successful Belarusian businessman.

“Never did we dream that I would be in this position as president of Nigeria and Alex, a successful businessman from Belarus,” Mr Tinubu said.

Mr Tinubu’s show of his classmate at Chicago State University comes years after allegations of certificate forgery rocked his presidential ambitions.

Opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party requested court approval to subpoena Mr Tinubu’s files domiciled with CSU because he believed the documents would clarify glaring inconsistencies in the president’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.

In a pushback against Mr Abubakar’s legal move, which could expose his academic record, Mr Tinubu filed a motion to prevent a federal court in the United States from releasing his university academic records to the opposition leader.

Mr Tinubu 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.

However, the Nigerian Supreme Court dismissed new evidence in the certificate forgery scandal, reaffirming Mr Tinubu’s electoral victory. The matter continues to provoke debate among Nigerians.