In his remarks at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate for the general elections of 2023, took the podium.
Utilising the opportunity, Obi urged President Bola Tinubu to address the issue of his identity and Chicago State University academic credentials.
He also discussed Nigeria’s international humiliation as a result of the episode.
I must admit that I am troubled as a Nigerian after following the protracted identity issue that recently played out in the American legal system and the controversy surrounding the validity of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s credentials from Chicago State University.
I have had the unsavoury burden of responding to embarrassing queries about Nigeria’s overall credibility as a nation to privileged audiences and individuals both at home and abroad in different parts of the world where I have recently travelled, in addition to the barrage of media frenzy that the matter has sparked both domestically and internationally.
The entire CSU scandal, together with Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s other unanswered identification questions, have contributed to Nigeria’s less-than-glowing worldwide reputation, in the eyes of observers. Every other Nigerian is now perceived by uninformed foreigners as a prospective fraudster, certain forger, or identity theft suspect. Both the dispute and the implied public disgrace could have been averted.
According to me, Chief Bola Tinubu ought to have spared both himself and the country from this prolonged shame and unnecessary anxiety. But even at this late hour, he still owes the country and the entire globe a straightforward debt of obligation that only he can pay up.
I demand that he quickly and personally take the rostrum of his high position in order to do a quick task once and for all. To dispel any remaining uncertainty, he needs to reintroduce himself to both the country he leads and the rest of the globe.
Read also:Why Obi can’t cooperate with Tinubu’s administration — LP
He needs to provide his name, country, birthplace, parentage, dates of attendance at his primary and secondary schools, as well as the actual colleges he attended and the degrees he earned. He needs to be very explicit about when and where he completed his National Youth Service. Additionally, he must explicitly disclose any time he has changed his name as well as the circumstances surrounding it. That is not a crime by itself.
It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to do this easy assignment. Affidavits, drawn-out legal proceedings, spokespersons, agents, or surrogates are not necessary. Only Chief Bola Tinubu himself, by a direct personal statement, is qualified to carry out this responsibility. He needs to finish this work quickly in order to put all of the persistent questions and reasonable rumours regarding his genuine identity to rest.
No matter how highly positioned, a leader cannot delegate a clear, unequivocal personal declaration about who he is to political proxies, social spokespersons, lawyers, or anybody else.
An issue involving a leader’s personal identity is too delicate and essential to the duties of the office he currently holds to be experimented with, delegated, or covered up by officialdom.
Additionally, it is about the nation’s and its citizens’ moral character as well as integrity, morals, ideals, and the rule of law. His genuine identity is a serious topic of national and international interest in his current position as the head of a country with over 200 million Nigerians.
Whatever rights he may have to personal privacy, the public deserve to know with certainty who their leader really is.
Additionally, the worldwide community has a right to know the real name of the individual they would be dealing with in Nigeria.
Chief Bola Tinubu has implicitly agreed to give up his rights as a private citizen in favour of a life of open disclosure of his true identity and other circumstances that may be of public interest by running for election to the elevated public office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His moral character forbids anything less.
That much and even more is required by the validity of the position he now holds. It is even more important and required out of respect for the Nigerian nation’s integrity and regard among the international community.
The time has come to act morally.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria will always exist.
