By Charles Mgbolu
More than seven months after Nigerians went to the polls to elect the country's16th president, the battle to reverse the outcome of that election appears far from over.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressive Congress party was declared winner and was sworn into office in February
His main opponent, Atiku Abubakar, has moved to the Supreme Court to have the victory nullified after a presidential election tribunal upheld the results last month.
In his appeal, Atiku raised 35 objections, but its his allegation that the president forged a diploma certificate obtained from Chicago State University in 1979 that has sparked debate in the local political space.
Academic qualification
Tinubu submitted the diploma as part of his academic qualifications when he sought clearance from Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, to run for the presidency.
Local Nigerian media report that the president's academic results have since been released to Atiku after he successfully petitioned the Northern District of Illinois Court in the US to order Chicago State University to release all relevant documents pertaining to Tinubu's study there.
Political analysts and law experts have taken different positions on the relevance of the academic results, with some arguing that the issue was being raised a little too late.
‘’The efforts to impeach the educational qualifications of the president are an effort in futility,’’ Kunle Adegoke (SAN) told TRT Afrika.
'Vague petition'
‘’It should have been presented before the elections, or worse yet, before going to the tribunal. These are evidences that should have been presented before the judgement (by the election petition),’’ he argued.
‘’There perhaps is a moral obligation for the president to genuinely prove that he indeed went to this university and the results are rightfully his,’’ countered Emeka Monye, a political journalist in Nigeria.
Purported copies of the academic papers have been circulating on social media promtping a response from one cabinet minister.
‘’It is now obvious that the loss of Atiku Abubakar at the last polls hurt him deeply more than all his previous losses put together... He should accept that this game is over,’’ Festus Keyamo wrote on X, previously known as Twitter.
Game not over
But others have argued that perhaps this game is far from over.
‘’If the (academic) results were rightfully there all this time, then why was there a powerful effort by the president’s legal team to ensure the results never saw the light of day?'' posed David Okenwa, a political analyst.
‘’It may seem like this fight is over, but Atiku has been in politics for many years and may still have an ace card up his sleeve. It is dangerous to write him off just yet,’’ says Monye.
President Tinubu has not commented on the latest development - he has just emerged from a different fight where he successfully stopped a nationwide strike by state workers that was scheduled for October 3.
Atiku has also not publicly commented on the latest developments, with analysts saying he will surely now be consulting with lawyers to decide his next steps.
