Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2023 election, has said that President Bola Tinubu’s lingering certificate issue with the Chicago State University has further worsened the “less than glorious image” of Nigeria, internationally.
Obi said this during a press conference on Wednesday morning, adding that the global embarrassment that the country is currently facing could have been avoided.
He said “To the outsiders, the entire Chicago University matter, as well as Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s many other lingering identity question marks have further worsened Nigeria’s less than glorious image, internationally.
“Uninformed outsiders now see every Nigerian as a fraudster, certificate forger or identity thief. the controversy is unnecessary. Just as the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided.
“In my opinion, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu could have saved the nation and himself this protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety. Chief Tinubu still owes the country and the world a simple obligation only he can discharge.”
The LP presidential candidate also called on President Tinubu to reintroduce himself to the nation and the world at large, rather than outsourcing that responsibility to political surrogates.
“I therefore, respectfully and humbly call on him to immediately and personally mount his president’s high office and perform a simple task once and for all time. He should reintroduce himself to the nation he governs and to the world for avoidance of further doubt. He should let the world know his name, his nationality, his place of birth, his parentage, the primary and secondary schools he attended with dates as well as the actual universities he attended and certificates he obtained.
“He should indicate clearly where and when he did his national youth service. In addition, if at any time, he had a change of name, he should state so clearly and the circumstance. That itself is no crime. this is a simple task that will take only few minutes.
“He must perform this task urgently in order to lay to rest, once and for the last time the many lingering doubt about his true identity.
“A leader cannot outsource a clear, unambiguous personal statement about his identity to political surrogates, official spokespeople, lawyers or any other person, no matter how highly placed. A matter of personal identity of a leader, is too sensitive and central to the function of the office he currently occupies to be outsourced.
“The people deserve to know the true identity of their leader and this overrides whatever rights he may have to personal privacy,” he said.