Peter Obi of the Labour Party says President Bola Tinubu’s controversial Chicago State University records question the credibility of Nigeria, adding that leaders who falsify age and certificates cannot govern well.

Mr Obi, the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate challenging Mr Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election, said this in an interview on ARISE TV Monday morning.

“We are at the point where we are challenging the process. These are part of what makes a nation. The process through which people come into office is far more fundamental than what they do thereafter,” Mr Obi explained.

He added, “If you look at what is happening today in Nigeria today, so many issues of certificate, age, all sorts of one falsification or the other all over within the leaders. There is no way people doing this can be able to do the right things because that means they are living a falsified life. That is not good morally.”

Mr Obi noted that “there are so many great people in the world who did not go to school.” 

“One of the greatest presidents America ever had is Abraham Lincoln. He did not go to formal school. In fact, his entire formal education is less than one year because he came from a poor home and did not have formal education,” said the former Anambra governor.

Mr Obi explained that Mr Lincoln “didn’t have to say he read PhD here or did this one here and then there is an argument like what we are having in Nigeria today which is bringing the credibility of the country to question.”

The presidential candidate’s comment came amid a legal battle and calls for CSU to release Mr Tinubu’s academic records.

In August, Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, 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.

In pushback against Mr Atiku’s legal move, which could expose his academic record, Mr Tinubu had also 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 argued that releasing all his academic records could cause him irreparable damages.

However, Judge Nancy Maldonado said the U.S. court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago was inundated with emails from Nigerians eagerly anticipating her decision on whether or not she will order CSU to release Mr Tinubu’s records. 

As a result, she has decided to issue a ruling on the matter “as soon as possible,” a court filing seen by Peoples Gazette stated.