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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The camps of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have protested the BBC report, which said there is no evidence to back the allegation that President Bola Tinubu forged his diploma from Chicago State University (CSU).
BBC’s Global Disinformation Team had in a fact-checking report published on Wednesday said there was no evidence that Tinubu forged the certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the February presidential election.
The BBC report concluded that the allegation that Tinubu submitted a forged CSU certificate to the INEC was false.
The Global Disinformation Team explained that it fact-checked the most widely circulated claims to arrive at its conclusion.
The allegation of certificate forgery levelled against Tinubu has dominated public discourse for days, with his opponents in the last presidential election, Atiku and Obi, taking the former Lagos State governor to task over the issue.
Reports that Tinubu forged his certificate went viral on social media following the release of his CSU academic records.
The release of the president’s academic documents is the culmination of a judicial case filed in August by Atiku, who is seeking to overturn Tinubu’s electoral victory at the Supreme Court.
Atiku had accused Tinubu of falsifying the CSU diploma of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration awarded in 1979 that he submitted to the electoral body.
In a move to strengthen his election petition appeal filed at the apex court, the PDP standard bearer asked an Illinois, Chicago court to compel the CSU to release the President’s academic records, including a copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979, copies of diplomas with the same font, seal, signatures, and wording awarded to other students that are similar to what CSU awarded to him in 1979.
He also demanded documents from the CSU that were certified by Jamar Orr, who was then a staff member of the CSU.
Responding to the new report by the British broadcaster, Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, in a statement, described the report as a hatchet job.
He claimed that the report “is part of President Tinubu administration’s propaganda programme.”
“Sometime last week when the National Broadcasting Commission issued a final warning to Arise News TV, we pointed out that the Tinubu administration was on the verge of launching a full-blown propaganda and also intimidating ‘uncooperative’ media houses into discrediting and downplaying the CSU scandal.
“Sadly, we never imagined that it would be the BBC that would become the willing tool,” he said.
Shaibu criticised the BBC for allegedly attempting to “bamboozle Nigerians with a jaundiced report when the details are clear for everyone to see.”
Atiku’s aide alleged that the BBC investigation was carried out with a predetermined goal to clear Tinubu.
He called on the BBC and other fact-checkers to be more circumspect, adding that their job was too sensitive to entertain errors.
Shaibu, who advised media organisations to invest more in investigative journalism, said: “If the BBC had invested in proper investigative journalism, it would have been the one uncovering some of Tinubu’s scandals instead of relying on Atiku for information on Tinubu’s certificates.”
In another statement, Shaibu lambasted the President “for holding just one cabinet meeting since taking office 135 days ago.”
He described it as ironic that Tinubu, who has the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s history, had decided not to meet with them.
Also, the leadership of the Labour Party said they were not moved by the report of the British media outfit, which it said was damage control to change the certificate saga narrative.
The Labour Party National Legal Adviser, Kehinde Edun, said that regardless of what anyone may say, the president must take responsibility “for the mess he is putting the country through.”
“They (BBC) are entitled to their opinion. As far as we are concerned, this issue has become so messy and too dirty. In fact, in this circumstance, we even sympathise with Tinubu because he put himself in too many problems by not coming out clean about so many things.
“If you look at what Peter Obi said today, he was actually showing some form of empathy by saying that this man (Tinubu) should just clean up his mess for the sake of the country,’’ Edin said.
APC berates Atiku
Meanwhile the Director of Publicity, All Progressives Congress (APC) , Bala Ibrahim, has slammed the PDP standard bearer, Atiku, over the certificate controversy.
He applauded the BBC, describing its investigation as “factual and a reflection of reality.”
Ibrahim, in a statement said that it was a vindication of what they knew.
“What the BBC has done now is to lend credence to the submission of the president that he did not forge any document. If anybody is in doubt, he can come up with a contrary investigation. For the BBC disinformation team to come with this report, it means the information is sacrosanct,” he said.
Ibrahim also dismissed insinuations that the foreign media might have been compromised to give the president a clean bill.
He said his experience working for the broadcast station for almost three decades convinced him the British media outfit could not be intimidated or induced.
“I am saying this to dismiss the insinuation by critics of this administration that the BBC is compromised. I served with the BBC for upwards of 27 years and retired as a regional coordinator in charge of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Burkina Faso.
“In all these years of service, one thing is central in the training of the BBC, which is credibility and fact-finding. The BBC lays emphasis on re-training people on fact-finding and importance of credibility.
“That is why the BBC is the only media in the world that doesn’t run advert. It doesn’t collect money from anybody because it is being funded by the Foreign Office. No BBC staffer is in touch with money or allowed to collect money from anywhere. The question of being compromised or influenced to do something is laughable,” he stated.
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