On Thursday, a group under the aegis of Beta Naija urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to end his “chase of shadows” over President Bola Tinubu’s transcript and academic records from Chicago State University (CSU).

The group, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mustafa Ahmed Tijani, and Director General, Etinosa Igiebor, argued that the political terrain has been overtaken by the former Vice President’s needless and ultimately fruitless drama in his attempt to “turn facts on their heads and seemingly empty the Atlantic Ocean with a spoon.”

The statement partly reads;

We expect him (Atiku) to busy himself with how to prove that he won the February Presidential Election at the Supreme Court, rather than this fishing expedition he is currently on. Instead of proving that he won the election, he is busy spending his fraudulently earned dollars on expensive lawyers to prove a matter that is not in doubt at all.

It is laughable that people with questionable track records both in public service and private practice are on the chase of President Tinubu, whose academic, administrative prowess, and leadership capacity have been proven both locally and internationally.

Just so we are clear, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not seeking admission into Atiku Abubakar’s privately-owned university, which only came into existence after his time in office as Vice President. So, one wonders what he intends to do with the President’s transcript and certificate at this time. In any case, should Atiku Abubakar be in a generous mood, he may want to extend a free admission offer to members of his own party, as he only needs to look to Osun State to find a worthy beneficiary of such unsolicited generosity.

However, we are glad that the matter has been laid to rest as Caleb Westberg, the University Registrar at CSU, said in a deposition and under oath, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a graduate of CSU and was issued a certificate after graduating from the school with honours.

His words, I see that he said the same person he (Atiku Abubakar) ran against is now the President of Nigeria, the Bola Tinubu who attended Southwest College and took accounting courses. The Bola Tinubu who attended CSU also took accounting courses. I see the address indicated for Bola Tinubu. It’s not far from CSU (campus).

I looked at the whole record in making the determination that the Bola Tinubu who is the president of Nigeria today is the same person who attended CSU. The entries’1952’ and ‘1954’ could have been made in error. The person who attended Southwest College is the person who attended CSU. The courses taken by Bola Tinubu at Southwest and CSU are consistent.

Right after the entry ‘F’, the social security number (SSN) entered indicated in the Southwest transcript is the same as the one that was indicated in CSU records. That is one of the indicia that we use to identify students. A social security number is a unique identifier.”

Now that the matter is rested and dollars have been put to shame, we must leave them to their flight of fantasy and return to reality. Nigeria dearly needs governing and it is only right that we allow the man Nigerians willingly gave the mandate to lead to do just that. While the President has not been distracted in the least and has even been doing wonders in the assignment Nigerians gave to him, we must do our best to not add to his already arduous job.

Meanwhile, we are concerned about how Atiku Abubakar, who claims he attended the Royal School of Hygiene in Kano, ended up as a Master’s Degree holder. We are also at a loss as to why Peter Obi, who claims to have graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is unwilling to parade said transcript and academic records…

Let it be on record that we have before now written privately to both the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Mr. Peter Obi, to release their academic credentials to the public and there was no response from either party. We are hereby issuing another public call with a Seven (7) day ultimatum for compliance.

Failure to do so will see us asking our lawyers, who are waiting in the wings, to institute a case against them in a court of competent jurisdiction to demand the release of the academic records of both the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party candidate, Mr. Peter Obi.

The case before the Supreme Court is a logical one and not an emotional affair. If they want to win, they must prove beyond every reasonable doubt. Anything aside logic will amount to a waste of time.

We urge Nigerians to continue their support for the President’s administration. We are mindful of the current challenges, and we are quite hopeful that the tide will change, and the country will blossom again.