• About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Friday, May 9, 2025
  • Login
Vital News
  • Frontpage
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • National
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • More
    • Crime
    • Judiciary
    • Security
No Result
View All Result
  • Frontpage
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • National
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • More
    • Crime
    • Judiciary
    • Security
No Result
View All Result
Vital News
No Result
View All Result
Home National Opinion

IGNORANCE OF AMERICA THAT ATIKU’S LAWYERS AND SUPPORTERS BETRAY By Farooq A. Kperogi

Vital News by Vital News
October 9, 2023
in Opinion
0
ATIKU BEATS ABOUT CHICAGO BUSH  ‘EXCERPTS FROM : NO SILVER BULLET FROM CHICAGO — BY SIR FESTUS T. NWIYO, ESQ
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

 

 

 

 

IGNORANCE OF AMERICA THAT ATIKU’S LAWYERS AND SUPPORTERS BETRAY
By Farooq A. Kperogi

RelatedStories

UNDERSTANDING RUSSIA’S GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR AND VICTORY By Lawal Sale

THINK TANK: SENATOR MOHAMMED ALI NDUME’S DELIBERATE DISTORTION OF DEVELOPMENT LOANS DATA: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

2027 : THE DISTURBING ETHNIC SING SONG FROM YOBE By Modu Zanna

For The Yoruba Of Northern Nigeria By Lasisi Olagunju

As I have stressed repeatedly, I have no partisan emotional investment in the political brawl between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, or in who is and is not president of Nigeria. My only partisan affinity is with the truth or, to reecho iconic Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, the best obtainable version of the truth.

This intervention is for people who genuinely want clarity from the blinding maze of propaganda and intentional falsehoods flying around. It’s not for sentimental partisan hacks and political devotees who just want an affirmation of and a comfort to their prejudices and preconceptions.

As an American citizen, a graduate of two American universities, and a professor in one, I can tell the reader three major things Atiku’s Nigerian lawyers and his supporters on social media— and in some openly partisan news sites— are getting wrong.

The major one is the idea that because Tinubu presented a certificate (called a “diploma” in America) to INEC that didn’t emanate from Chicago State University, whose registrar affirmed under oath that Tinubu graduated from there, he has committed forgery in the legal sense of the term. That thinking betrays ignorance of the American university system—and results from people using their limited Nigerian lenses to refract an American phenomenon that’s beyond their experiential reality.

Certificates are not used as legal proof of graduation from any school in America and therefore can’t be forged in the legal sense of the term. Only transcripts can be used as legal documents to validate the genuineness of claims to have attended institutions, including secondary schools.

Had Tinubu presented a counterfeit transcript to support his claim of graduating from CSU when he didn’t, or merely to claim a higher GPA than he actually earned even when he graduated from there, that would have been forgery in the legal sense of the term, which is understood to mean “Criminal falsification by making or altering an instrument with intent to defraud.”

In this context, “intent to defraud” would mean Tinubu wanted to pass himself off as a university graduate when he wasn’t. But he is. His transcript says he is. The registrar of the university said under oath that he is. A classmate of his said under oath that they graduated from the school the same year. That’s all that matters.

One indication of the legal worthlessness of certificates in America came from the CSU registrar’s admission in court that the school had many uncollected diplomas going as far back as the 1930s. Certificates are not required to prove graduation here. That’s why people can afford to ignore them.

Intriguingly, the registrar said Tinubu also didn’t collect his original certificate from the school and that it is still lying there. Why did he say he lost it?

In the United States, a certificate is in many ways similar to a graduation ceremony. Most people attend it and listen to the president of the university formally confer diplomas on them with “all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.” But it has no force of law. Not attending a graduation ceremony doesn’t deprive you of “all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.”

If you organize your own graduation ceremony, invite friends and family, and ask your father to confer your degree on you, it’s fine so long as you validly earned the degree. Incidentally, an American family friend of mine did exactly that last May. His autistic son can’t tolerate the sensory overload of large crowds. So, he organized his son’s graduation and invited friends and family. He dressed as the president, and his wife was the provost. His eldest daughter was the graduation speaker.

In America, the diploma is the printed version—or fixed extension—of a graduation ceremony. It’s merely ceremonial and can be tweaked or individualized by anyone without legal consequences.

It betrays a stupendous poverty of legal and logical imagination to say that the “forgery” (unauthorized redesign is a better expression) of a non-legally-binding ceremonial document of a validly earned degree invalidates the degree. It’s never mentioned in CSU’s diplomas that alteration of the documents renders them invalid because they have no validity beyond being decorative documents.

You find that kind of language here only on transcripts. On Tinubu’s CSU transcript, for instance, we find such legal language twice. The left-hand side of the transcript says, “Explanatory legend and authenticity confirmation information on back.” On the right-hand side, it says, “THIS RECORD IS NOT OFFICIAL UNLESS IT BEARS A SIGNATURE AND SEAL OF THE UNIVERSITY.”

The diploma does not have such language because in America the diploma is no more important than a school’s academic gown. For example, I use a cheaper, “forged” version of the academic gown of the university that awarded me a doctoral degree (that I ordered from a third-party vendor online) to attend graduation ceremonies at the school where I teach now. At the time I graduated with my doctoral degree, I could only afford to rent the gown. Most people here do the same. It doesn’t invalidate our degrees because we’re using the unofficial academic gown of our universities.

I admit, though, that Tinubu was careless. He is in Nigeria where certificates have a different meaning and valence from the United States. He should have submitted CSU’s official diploma to INEC. But what he did does not, by even the most feverish stretch of conspiratorial fantasy, rise to the level of a Salisu-Buhari-type criminal forgery.

Unlike Salisu Buhari who forged a University of Toronto degree that he didn’t earn, Tinubu attended and earned a degree from Chicago State University. What Tinubu did with his certificate is pointlessly self-harming in reputational terms in Nigeria, but it’s not illegal.

The second major misconception of America came from Atiku’s lawyer by the name of Kalu Kalu. He said at a news conference on October 5 that “the Chicago State University admission application form has a claim that… the owner of that document is a Black American, and the document Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to INEC, he denied having dual citizenship which means it doesn’t belong to him.”

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help myself from letting out a burst of deep, loud, hearty laughter when I read that. It’s pure hilarious ignorance! You see, America has an enduringly irresistible impulse to taxonomize humanity into discrete racial categories. Every official form here requests you to identify your race. The modern options are “White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.”

In the mid-1970s when Tinubu applied to study at CSU, what is now “Black or African American” on official forms in America was simply “Black American,” particularly in historically Black Universities like CSU.

The US Census Bureau has historically defined “Black or African American” as “A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.”

“Black American” was the only category that closely applied to Tinubu, so he chose it because the form instructed him to “CHECK ONE BOX.” Checking the “Black American” box didn’t mean he called himself a Black American or that he impersonated a Black American. It only meant he identified HIS RACE as “Black American.” No more, no less.

The other options in the form were barely decipherable, but I could pick out “American Indian or Alaska Native,” something that looks like “Spanish Surname American,” another that looks like “Eurasian American,” etc. Although the form gave the option for “Other (explain),” most Africans here typically choose Black American as the closest description of their race.

Finally, a Dr. Abimbola Adenike Tinubu, who lives in a small town called Opelousas in the state of Louisiana, is being touted by social media trolls as the woman whose identity Bola Tinubu allegedly stole. The problem is that the lady was born in 1971, just 4 years before Tinubu enrolled at Southwest College. She graduated from the University of Ilorin in 1998 and came to the US later.

It’s chronologically and rationally impossible for Tinubu to steal the identity of a 4-year-old Nigerian preschooler (who came to America decades after Tinubu left it) and then present himself as an adult male to enroll at a community college!

Plus, Dr. Abimbola’s Whitepages information shows that she has never lived in Virginia where the social security number associated with President Tinubu was issued or Chicago where he went to school. She has only lived in Tennessee, Texas, and Louisiana.

Look, Tinubu’s life is wrapped in multiple layers of mind-bogglingly intricate fraud, but you can’t peel off these layers of fraud with fraud. You do it with the truth.

And Atiku can actually inflict fatal moral wounds on Tinubu and potentially immobilize him in 2027 if he pursues the leads that came out from his “fishing expedition” in Chicago. A low-hanging fruit is Tinubu’s obviously fraudulent secondary school attendance claim.

He can write to Cambridge University to verify the GCE A-level result that Tinubu presented to Southwest College. If it turns out that it’s fake or belongs to someone else, he can cause Daley College to rescind his associate degree.

If his associate degree is rescinded, his bachelor’s degree from Chicago State University will automatically follow. With no qualifications to present to INEC to prove that he has at least the equivalent of a secondary school certificate, he’d be legally ineligible to run again.

(vitalnewsngr.com)

Tags: AtikuChicagolawyersTinubu
Previous Post

United States Lack of Integrity is Plunging Middle East into Deeper Turmoil by Disu Kamor

Next Post

Two Years After, Sunday Igboho Regains Freedom

Vital News

Vital News

RelatedStories

UNDERSTANDING RUSSIA’S GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR AND VICTORY By Lawal Sale
Foreign

UNDERSTANDING RUSSIA’S GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR AND VICTORY By Lawal Sale

May 1, 2025
THINK TANK: SENATOR MOHAMMED ALI NDUME’S DELIBERATE DISTORTION OF DEVELOPMENT LOANS DATA: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Opinion

THINK TANK: SENATOR MOHAMMED ALI NDUME’S DELIBERATE DISTORTION OF DEVELOPMENT LOANS DATA: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

April 16, 2025
2027 : THE DISTURBING ETHNIC SING SONG FROM YOBE By Modu Zanna
Opinion

2027 : THE DISTURBING ETHNIC SING SONG FROM YOBE By Modu Zanna

April 15, 2025
Opinion

For The Yoruba Of Northern Nigeria By Lasisi Olagunju

April 14, 2025
CHINA/U.S : A TRADE WAR TO NOWHERE By Lawal Sale
Economy

CHINA/U.S : A TRADE WAR TO NOWHERE By Lawal Sale

April 8, 2025
Next Post
Two Years After, Sunday Igboho Regains Freedom

Two Years After, Sunday Igboho Regains Freedom

ASP Drambi Vandi , Killer Of Female Lawyer Bolanle Raheem Sentenced To Death

ASP Drambi Vandi , Killer Of Female Lawyer Bolanle Raheem Sentenced To Death

Saudi Arabia Cancels “All Negotiations” On Normalisation With Israel

Saudi Arabia Cancels “All Negotiations” On Normalisation With Israel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

Recommended

15 Die In Auto Crash On Ilorin-Jebba Road

4 months ago

Gunmen Kidnap 4 Catholic Reverend Sisters In Imo

3 years ago
2023 Elections : Nigerians In Diaspora Sue Buhari, INEC

Foreign Hackers Attacking Our Database, INEC Raises Alarm

2 years ago

Abuja-Kaduna Train Services Resume Operation November Ending

3 years ago

Instagram

    Please install/update and activate JNews Instagram plugin.

Categories

  • Agriculture/ Water/ Mineral
  • Aviation
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Culture
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Football
  • Foreign
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Judiciary
  • Labour
  • National
  • News
  • Oil & Gas
  • Opinion
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Power
  • Religion
  • Security
  • Sports
  • Transport
  • Uncategorized

Topics

Abiodun Abuja APC arrest Atiku Bandits Bello Benue Buhari CBN Court Dangote death drugs Economy EFCC Election elections FG Fraud gunmen Hajj INEC Kano kidnap Kill Kogi Kwara Lagos NDLEA Niger Nigeria Ododo Ogun Oyo PDP Police Power rescue road Security Senate students Tinubu US
No Result
View All Result

Highlights

Kogi Police Command Organises Conference On Operational Capacity, Mental Health, Financial wellness For Officers

Kogi Judicial Service Commission Sends Judge On Compulsory Retirement For Corruption, Suspend Magistrate For Two Years

TMV Hails NELFUND’s Disbursement Of N53bln, Says Nigerian Students Have Cause To Celebrate

President Tinubu Appoints MDs, Chairmen For Regional Development Commissions

Hajj 2025 : NAHCON Commences Airlifting Of 40,671 Pilgrims To Mecca

NASCON Records100% Growth In Dividend Payout, Attributes Higher Profitability To Massive Expansion Drive

Trending

Hajj 2025 : CBN Approves Cash-based BTA For Pilgrims To Ease Travel Demands
News

Hajj 2025 : Disagreement Between NAHCON, Saudi Arabia Stalls Flight Of 40,671 Pilgrims To Mecca

by Vital News
May 9, 2025
0

The movement of 40,671 intending pilgrims from Nigeria to Mecca for this year's hajj exercise earlier scheduled...

CESVO Confers Ethics And Integrity Ambassador Award On Ododo’s Spokesman, Ismaila Isah

CESVO Confers Ethics And Integrity Ambassador Award On Ododo’s Spokesman, Ismaila Isah

May 9, 2025
Gov. Radda, APC Chairman Present As Three PDP House Of Reps Members Defect To APC

Adamu Ailero, Two Other Kebbi PDP Senators Defect To APC

May 9, 2025
Kogi Police Command Organises Conference On Operational Capacity, Mental Health, Financial wellness For Officers

Kogi Police Command Organises Conference On Operational Capacity, Mental Health, Financial wellness For Officers

May 9, 2025
Police Arraign Ekiti Woman For Reneging On Marriage Promise After Collecting N607,500 From Suitor

Kogi Judicial Service Commission Sends Judge On Compulsory Retirement For Corruption, Suspend Magistrate For Two Years

May 9, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
Vital News

Vital News is an online newspaper with a mission to uphold professional journalism by reporting and publishing only facts and figures-based news reports across Nigeria and beyond.

Recent News

  • Hajj 2025 : Disagreement Between NAHCON, Saudi Arabia Stalls Flight Of 40,671 Pilgrims To Mecca May 9, 2025
  • CESVO Confers Ethics And Integrity Ambassador Award On Ododo’s Spokesman, Ismaila Isah May 9, 2025
  • Adamu Ailero, Two Other Kebbi PDP Senators Defect To APC May 9, 2025

Categories

  • Agriculture/ Water/ Mineral
  • Aviation
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Culture
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Football
  • Foreign
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Judiciary
  • Labour
  • National
  • News
  • Oil & Gas
  • Opinion
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Power
  • Religion
  • Security
  • Sports
  • Transport
  • Uncategorized

© 2022 Vital News - . All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Frontpage
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • National
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • More
    • Crime
    • Judiciary
    • Security

© 2022 Vital News - Vital News by Vital News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In