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Shocking Things No One Will Tell You
Over the last few months, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has been looking for ways and means to destroy the man he considers to be his No 1 political enemy, Pres. Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He had initially thought that he would defeat Tinubu at the presidential polls, he couldn’t. He came 2nd. And once the result was announced, he and Peter Obi who came 3rd headed for the Appeal Court. But unfortunately for them they lost
Dissatisfied with the result of the Appeal Court, he decided to go on to the Supreme Court. He also decided to dig up mud to splash on Tinubu, his age long friend. He consulted some of his lawyers and they told him he could dig up fresh facts and file them before the Supreme Court.
He was reliably informed that Tinubu did not go to all the schools he said he attended and that even if they couldn’t get what they want to achieve, they would have succeeded in denting Tinubu’s image and reputation. He fell for it. All they were after was how to inflict a fatal damage to Tinubu’s image as President.
They also taught they could get the authorities of Chicago State University (CSU) to confirm their believe that Tinubu didn’t go to CSU However, all the efforts of his Lawyers failed.
When he couldn’t get the facts he needed, Atiku then called a Press Conference where he revealed how deep seated his animosity for Tinubu is. He told all those who cared to listen that as for him, it is fight to finish. He was visibly angry.
All what Atiku wants is for the Supreme Court to over rule the judgement of the Appeal Court and declare him Winner to make up for the alleged betrayal he claimed Tinubu did to him.
A lot of people who watched his Press Conference felt shocked at Atiku’s utterances against his opponent, who was once his friend.
City People can authoritatively reveal that what is going on right now is the story of 2 friends, who started out as political associates, but who have now become sworn enemies. It is the story of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Pres. Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The relationship dates back to the late 80’s when Atiku was planning to retire from the Customs Service and he decided to go into Politics. At that time, he was already attracted to the PDM headed by the late political master strategist, Gen. Shehu Yar’Adua.
As at that time, Tinubu had been a close associate of Yar’Adua. He had just left his plum job with MOBIL and he was with the Sarumi political camp.
It was when Atiku joined the Yar’Adua Camp that he and Tinubu hit it off.
Both nursed similar ambition. They both had big dreams to be President of Nigeria, some day. Tinubu had his plans well laid out. He would rise to become a Senator, Governor and then clinch the ultimate prize-the Presidency.
Atiku also had his plans well laid out. He wanted to become a political leader like Yar’Adua, go on to be Governor and ultimately become the President of Nigeria.
He achieved the first 2. He stepped into Yar’Adua’s shoes when he died and won the governorship of Adamawa State before former President Olusegun Obasanjo invited him to be his Vice President. Since he left office as V.P. he has been contesting elections to be President.
As providence will have it the paths of Atiku and Asiwaju have been crossing, as Atiku has had to join, at various times the ACN and APC in furtherance of his presidential ambition. These were parties that Tinubu was instrumental to its formation.
But Atiku’s political journey has had so many stumbling blocks.
All he wanted has always been to become the President of Nigeria. Over the year, it has become an obsession.
He has contested several times and failed.
So, how did they become sworn enemies? Insiders say Atiku is angry because he believes, rightly or wrongly that Tinubu has always been the stumbling block to his ambition to be President.
More painful was the circumstances surrounding how he lost at the last elections. This is because in the just concluded presidential elections, Atiku was super sure of victory, reveal an insider.
He was said to have received assurances from the powers that be in the corridors of power that he will be the next President. Atiku, a Fulani had been designed by some powerful Fulani politicians to take over from Buhari, also a Fulani. Atiku was supposed to be the preferred candidate that will take over the mantle of leadership from his kinsmen. Wike hinted at this during one of his press conferences in Port Harcourt when his fight with Atiku began. When Atiku and Wike started their rift, Wike at his very first Press Conference in Port Harcourt told the world that Atiku had been assured of victory at the polls, by some powerful forces at the Presidency. When one of his interviewers asked him if he meant Pres, Buhari, he said No.
I chose my words. I am a Lawyer. I said by some of those powerful forces at the Presidency”.
It was revealed that many of the story Northern political players wanted a Fulani to continue from Buhari. And of all the candidates, Atiku fit the bill. The game plan, according to insiders was for them to frustrate Tinubu with all sorts of last minutes tactics and Atiku with his influence across the North, South-West, South-South, South-East will sweep the polls.
So, as a insider put it, Atiku was so sure of victory at the polls, until he lost out to Tinubu.
And he is angry that Tinubu beat him to the game. He then became bitter. He was also sure that he will win at The Appeal Court. Again he lost. He then felt that to enable him win at the Supreme Court there was need to destroy and discredit someone he regards as his No 1 political enemy by attracting his character, reputation by saying he didn’t go to school.
Tunde Rahman who is one of Pres. Tinubu’s aide responded to Atiku a few days ago.
According to him, “Former Vice President and roundly defeated presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was a pitiful sight to behold on Thursday at the Shehu Yar ‘Adua Centre, Abuja as he sat like a wreck after addressing what he called a world press conference. He had gone on a wild goose chase to the United States in search of President Bola Tinubu’s certificate.
The former Vice President however returned empty-handed after spending a fortune. Atiku himself admitted his exploratory journey was at a hefty cost.
At the press conference, the Waziri Adamawa discovered no new thing; he found nothing incriminating or untoward against the President. He is only currently engaging in political sophistry. Apparently deluding himself that he came back from the US with a smoking gun, at his press briefing, he sermonised on the important issue of leadership and responsibility. Alhaji Atiku assaulted the memory of the late irrepressible lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, claiming Fawehinmi inspired his shameful, worthless and self-seeking expedition.
Commending David Hundeyin, the rabble rouser who styles himself as an independent journalist, whose work he also said inspired him, it became apparent that both Atiku and Hundeyin were actually working together to embarrass President Tinubu.
Overwhelmed by his inordinate ambition, the failed PDP presidential candidate also shamelessly called traditional, religious, community and political leaders in the country including Labour Party’s Peter Obi and NNPP’s Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso to rally round him in his political vendetta against President Tinubu.” This quest is not for or about Atiku Abubakar. It is a quest for the enthronement of truth, morality and accountability in our public affairs,” he said. And you wonder, what morality Alhaji Atiku was preaching. This is the same man who was indicted in the 2009 conviction of his accomplice, former United States Congressman William Jefferson, over bribery charges. Same man whose principal, former President Obasanjo, wrote a damaging testimonial on and whose years in Customs were signposted by corruption allegations.
It is pertinent at this juncture to clarify some of the issues that emerged from the deposition by President Tinubu’s former school, Chicago State University, in order to understand Atiku’s deliberate and malicious distortion.
Speaking on oath in the testimonies contained in a deposition made in the Office of Angela Liu, Atiku’s legal counsel, in Chicago, US, CSU Registrar, Caleb Westberg declared that President Bola Tinubu attended and graduated with honours from the institution in 1979. He in fact asserted that President Tinubu is the same person who attended the school from 1977 to 1979. “We believe Bola Tinubu who attended CSU is the same person who is the President of Nigeria today. Tinubu is an unusual name in the US. He matched the records in the file against the information provided by the student or on behalf of the student.”
On the insinuation by Atiku’s lawyers that the Bola Tinubu who attended the school was a female on account of a clerical error spotted against Tinubu’s name, Westberg disclosed that the admission letter issued to the Nigerian President evidently proved he was a male and attended the school between 1977 and 1979.
Probed further to confirm if the Tinubu that enrolled at the school was a male or female, the registrar insisted, “Tinubu applied to the university as a male and a letter of admission was issued to a male.
“There were materials in Mr. Tinubu’s records that show he was a male in the application to CSU. Mr. Tinubu identified himself as a male. His letter of admission identified him as a male. It says: ‘Dear Mr. Tinubu’, he said.
It is relevant to point out that in the US, premium is not placed on certificates, otherwise called diplomas, as we do here. Certificates are merely ceremonial. The emphasis is on transcripts. Employers and schools offering admissions for higher education will only ask for previous transcripts.
In most cases, the certificates are also printed by third party vendors. Many certificates are left uncollected because what is important is the transcript. The CSU has diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession.
“I have the diploma that was made available to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah in our possession because Mr. Tinubu did not pick it up. I do not have the diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession because he had picked it, “ Westberg clarified while responding to another question.
Other matters also came up during the over five-hour interrogation session that I do not want to bore you with in this piece. However, it is surprising that Atiku and co would claim President Tinubu forged his certificate simply because the CSU Registrar said he could not authenticate the certificate presented to him by Atiku’s lawyer as the document Tinubu presented to INEC for the 2023 Presidential Election. He said he cannot confirm because only Tinubu has the certificate which he ordered and which had been picked up for him and that the school does not keep students’certificates. Nowhere in the interrogation did Westberg use the word fake or forged as Atiku’s lawyer tried to make him say so. Fact is there is no scintilla of doubt that President Tinubu attended and graduated from CSU. As my colleague, Temitope Ajayi, pointed out in his widely-publicised tweet, “You can only forge a certificate you never earned.” President Tinubu honourably earned his degree and he had no reason to forge the certificate of a degree he had in his kitty. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, with distinction. He was on the Vice Chancellor’s Honour List for all his years in the school. Insinuation by anyone that he forged a certificate he worked for is sad and misleading.
Indeed, attempts by some to liken the situation with those of the disgraced former House of Representatives Speaker, Salisu Buhari and former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun are disingenuous.
Former Speaker Buhari forged the certificate of Toronto University he never attended. He was removed from office for the forgery. Former President Obasanjo later pardoned him. As for former Minister Adeosun, those who brought her to limelight and sponsored her for the ministerial appointment arranged a fake NYSC exemption certificate for her to scale Senate screening. The same people did her in when disagreements broke out between them, giving her away as a certificate forger over which she eventually resigned. The cases are markedly different: President Tinubu earned his stripes.
In the final analysis, it is yet unclear how Atiku plans to benefit from whatever he claims to have brought back from the US. Certificate forgery was not pleaded in his election petition now at the Supreme Court. Without being a lawyer, this is a civil case and I understand you can’t make new pleas or present new evidence in a case that has passed the court of first instance and is at present on appeal at the Supreme Court.
What the Waziri Adamawa has demonstrated in all of his Shenanigans is that he is a sore loser. Will he gain what he failed to get at the ballot through his present indecent and unpatriotic overseas search and unfounded and hollow discovery, making a mountain where there is even no molehill, uneccesarily heating up the polity and denigrating the Justices of the Supreme Court? I don’t think so!
Felix Morka, the APC National Publicity Secretary also took on Atiku. The All Progressives Congress (APC) is unfazed by the press conference addressed by former Vice President and Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar. The press conference lacked purpose and delivered nothing, except the pitiful regurgitation of lies, mindless distortions and deliberate falsehood on his infantile obsession with the academic record of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
For several weeks now, Nigerians and the world have watched with incredulity Alhaji Abubakar’s display of utter desperation in his failed bid to become the President of Nigeria.
Earlier today, he put his desperation in overdrive during his press conference where he addressed some of the issues in his appeal at the Supreme Court and bandying unproven charges against the President of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a calculated attempt to shamelessly whip up public sentiments and inordinately pressure the Supreme Court.
We believe Atiku should have known better than to demonstrate gross contempt of the highest court by making public comments on a matter that he has submitted to the court for adjudication.
The major takeaway from his Yar’Adua Centre show, especially at question time, was that Atiku harbours deep animosity towards Tinubu whom he believes was responsible for his electoral woes in 2007, 2015, 2019 and this year.
In desperation, unbecoming of a statesman who once occupied the second highest office in the land, the PDP candidate in the last election has thrown every decency, decorum, dignity and national respectability out the window on his purposeless judicial voyage of discovery to the United States in search of a magic wand for taking power against the will of the Nigerian electorate loudly expressed in last February’s presidential election.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar holds the unenviable title of Nigeria’s most prolific election loser and longest running presidential candidate in history, and we see his recent US fishing expedition as the last kick of a roundly rejected presidential aspirant.
While we sympathise with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for spending a lifetime pursuing unrealised dream, we strongly condemn the perfidious road he has taken and the needless negative exposure of Nigeria and the institution of the Presidency in foreign land.
Just for the record, we wish to provide some clarity on the matter of the deposition of Mr. Caleb Westberg, the Registrar of Chicago State University, last Tuesday under oath at the Chicago office of Atiku’s lawyer, Angela Liu, to save unsuspecting Nigerians from barrage of untruths, distortions and campaign of misinformation being dished out by Atiku and his PDP.
Mr. Westberg was unmistaken and unambiguous in his deposition as to the fact that President Bola Tinubu graduated with honours from Chicago State University. He also emphatically provided clear answers on all other issues raised which we can sum as follows:
- That the person who is Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the same person who attended Chicago State University.
- He confirmed that a certain gentleman called Adeniji who had come forward to say he was Tinubu’s classmate was in fact a student at CSU at the same time and they both ran for student union positions.
- Mr. Westberg said the diploma certificate, on which the PDP and Atiku seek to gaslight Nigerians and the whole world, is just a ceremonial document and what proved studentship at Chicago State University and in any American university is transcript, not certificate.
Furthermore, he stated that the ‘F’ on the South-West college certificate, a feeder institution to CSU, which President Bola Tinubu used to gain admission into CSU was a clerical error which could of course happen. He reiterated that South-West College was a major feeder source for CSU.
- He said the person admitted based on the transcript from South West College, was a male Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Westberg also added the courses taken by President Bola Tinubu at Southwest College were consistent with the courses he took at CSU.
Westberg further deposed that Accounting is a rigorous field of study. Anyone who did not take the requisite courses at the lower levels could not have done well at CSU.
In President Tinubu’s case, he did excellently well at CSU. He graduated with High Honours. That to him point to the fact that the person who attended and graduated from CSU was the same person who went to South-West College.
- He pointed out that CSU has had at least six Registrars since 1979 and in an affidavit at an Illinois court prior to the deposition said “Chicago State University provided a diploma to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and subsequently provided a certified (or official) copy of that diploma. Both are valid and authentic diplomas of Chicago State University”.
“He said further that the difference in the date of award on the diploma versus the certified copy is likely the result of human error. The graduation date on the certified copy is typed in manually by a person and can be inaccurate”.
- Mr. Westberg noted that by practice, CSU does not replace certificates for students as they are issued by 3rd party vendors which is also a common practice by other US universities. The proof of attendance and graduation remains the transcripts.
- There is also no part of Mr. Westberg’s deposition where he said that the certificate President Bola Tinubu presented to INEC for his election is fake or was forged. All the insinuations and innuendos in this regard are pure mischief and should be disregarded. President Tinubu could not have forged a University degree he honourably earned because there is no advantage to derive from such and no incentive to do so.
It should now be clear to all Nigerians that despite Atiku’s lies before the Illinois Court that he wanted to use the discoveries in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court, he has rather chosen to use same as an instrument of mischief and blackmail in clear contempt of the highest court of the land.
We want to urge former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to graciously accept his defeat and quietly lick his political wound with some dignity. Nigerians rejected him at the polls, and he cannot get by subterfuge what he failed to get through the ballot box.
Nigerians validly elected President Tinubu to revamp our economy, restore security, create jobs, provide transformative infrastructure, improve electricity supply and enhance the living conditions of the masses.
President Tinubu has undertaken to serve Nigerians and he will not be distracted by a man who has consistently failed to achieve his self-serving and brutal quest to become Nigeria’s President.
Former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, also wrote the open letter to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over the ongoing controversy about President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University (CSU) academic records.
Omokri was known as a staunch supporter of Atiku before and during the 2023 general elections. However, Omokri has been seen recently defending President Tinubu against his favourite candidate in the just concluded election.
In his open letter to the PDP on Friday morning, Omokri recalled that he warned Atiku about Peter Obi ahead of the 2023 general election. Recall that Obi was a member of the PDP but withdrew his membership after the fallout from the party’s primary election and joined the Labour Party.
According to Omokri, he told Atiku about the need to convince Obi not to run for the presidency, noting that doing so would steal a chunk of the party’s votes.
If Not For Desperation, Why Will Atiku, PDP Go To Supreme Court?
Omokri berated the move saying that it was an act of desperation.
He wondered why a party that has produced the likes of Obasanjo, late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan, would resort to such moves after losing woefully in the presidential election.
“What do we now want to prove at the Supreme Court, even in the unlikely event we are allowed to present new evidence? That Bola Tinubu forged a diploma for a degree that he legitimately earned? If not for desperation, why would the great PDP that produced Presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan even consider clutching at such weak straws? It is like saying a man forged a cheque for an account in his name,” Omokri said.
“It has been said that a person’s worst enemy is the individual who feeds their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The 2023 election is over. Peter Obi defeated us, not Bola Tinubu. By contesting in an election he knew he could not win, Peter Obi stole away votes that would naturally have come to the Peoples Democratic Party (the South-East has always voted PDP since 1999. Only 2023 was an exception). That is why we lost.
“As a true friend of the Peoples Democratic Party, I told Peter Obi this before the election. I also said the same thing to Waziri Atiku Abubakar. I said if we did not find a way to convince Peter Obi not to run, then we would have to take him on head-on because there was not enough space for both him and Waziri Atiku on the plinth of victory. But that is now history.
“The fact of the matter is that the current trajectory of our party is very and eerily similar to the election denial that prevailed in the Republican Party after the 2020 election.
“Pinning all our hopes on a smoking gun from Chicago State University that failed to manifest shows that we have reached the end of our ropes.
“Let us face the truth. AriseTV and other irresponsible media got our hopes up unnecessarily. Chicago State University never denied Bola Tinubu. That was a big fat lie from Rufai Oseni, @ruffydfire a corrupt journalist sponsored by Peter Obi, a rival of Mr. Tinubu.
“A meticulous reading of Mr. Westberg’s deposition shows that he affirmed Mr. Tinubu three times as a bonafide graduate they once issued with a diploma certificate.
“Under normal circumstances, it would be apparent to us that there is no case here. Chicago State University, through its registrar, Mr. Caleb Westberg, has testified under oath that Bola Tinubu, the male now President of Nigeria, was admitted, attended and graduated from their institution.
“They never denied his credentials. What they said, both in their affidavit and the deposition that followed, is that they could not attest to the diploma tendered by Bola Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission, not because Bola Tinubu did not graduate from their university, but because a third party vendor-issued it, and certificates are more of “a Nigerian thing”.
“In case members of my party do not know, in November of 2022, this same Mr. Mike Enahoro-Ebah attempted to disqualify Mr Tinubu on exactly these same grounds, and an FCT Magistrate Court struck out his case without being assigned. And we think the Supreme Court will give credence to what a Magistrate Court dismissed?
“What do we now want to prove at the Supreme Court, even in the unlikely event we are allowed to present new evidence? That Bola Tinubu forged a diploma for a degree that he legitimately earned? If not for desperation, why would the great PDP that produced Presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan even consider clutching at such weak straws? It is like saying a man forged a cheque for an account in his name!
“Bola Tinubu’s political foes have clutched at this straw before in 1999 and 2003 and failed. And that is what we now want to hold onto in 2023. Twenty years after it failed?
“The people behind this desperation are almost all agents of Peter Obi. They don’t love Waziri Atiku Abubakar or the PDP. It is a strategy of using Waziri to fight Asiwaju, hoping they cancel each other and that a rerun election is ordered, which Peter Obi will win. They fail to consider that, as of today, that is, Yes Daddy impossible.
“Waziri Atiku Abubakar would have been a better President than Bola Tinubu. But we were outsmarted by Bola Tinubu. Our redemption will not come from Chicago. It will come from facing reality and ensuring we do not have a divided house in 2027.
“I have been more loyal to the PDP than those now trying to make something out of nothing. And if I cannot tell my party the truth, then to borrow the words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:19, I am of all men most miserable”.
