Dr. Josef Onoh, President Bola Tinubu’s spokesperson for the southeast during the 2023 election campaigns, has argued that Atiku Abubakar and his supporters should not be celebrating the most recent American court decision regarding Tinubu’s academic transcripts from Chicago State University.
In Onoh’s opinion, the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the Nigerian presidential election in 2023 will not be affected by the court order.
You may recall that the Chicago State University (CSU) was mandated by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to provide former Vice President Atiku Abubakar with access to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s academic record by Monday, October 2.
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Onoh, however, asserts that the Atiku camp’s jubilation over the court decision are unwarranted because the records would be of no use.
He claimed that the concerns made by Atiku regarding the alleged falsification of Tinubu’s Chicago State University diploma as submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have previously been addressed under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as revised in 1974.
According to Onoh, FERPA establishes students’ rights to access, evaluate, and amend inaccurate or deceptive information in educational records through both informal and official hearings.
According to the former campaign spokesman, matters regarding President Tinubu’s past that were left out of Atiku’s initial petition contesting the President’s victory cannot be introduced in the middle of the hearings.
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“So Atiku has nothing to celebrate about. He told the US that he wanted to authenticate these documents, whether a Chicago State University diploma in the name of Bola Ahmed Tinubu dated June 22, 1979, that was submitted to the INEC before the Nigerian presidential election in February 2023 is genuine or was forged.
“Atiku said that under Nigerian law, the submission of a fraudulent document to the INEC would have disqualified President Tinubu from participating in the election.
“Now, when Atiku filed his application in the US district court on August 2, his petition challenging the presidential election was pending before the Nigerian Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. Atiku said his application in the US court was to obtain discoveries that would support his petitions in the Nigerian court of appeal.
“For issues of clarity, I wish to state that the Nigerian Court of Appeal declined to consider issues related to President Tinubu’s educational background that had not been included in petition but rather were belatedly raised for the first time in Atiku’s petition.
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“Hence, even if Atiku returns from his wild expedition, he will still meet same empty dinner table and no guests to serve his oysters because they have gone out of season.
“The US Eastern Illinois court that ordered the Chicago State University to release the academic records of President Bola Tinubu to Atiku was clear and specific while handing down the ruling in favour of Atiku with the right and cleverly taking the keys with the left.
“When Jeffrey Gilbert of US magistrate judge, gave the ruling on ordering the university to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents to Atiku within two days. This means that Chicago State University is only limited to providing all documents not protected by the FERPA to Atiku. Unfortunately, some of the documents requested by Atiku are FERPA-protected.
“So, clearly there is nothing new to celebrate, reason being that The Chicago State University already complied with the order even before the magistrate granted Atiku his order. CSU already confirmed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu attended the university and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree.
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“However, the university stated that the United States’ federal law, prevents it from providing any further information about Tinubu’s record, without consent or unless allowed to do so via court order. Clearly, Atiku and his cohorts have nothing to celebrate as the court clearly stated that only non-privileged records may be issued to Atiku,” Onoh said.
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