Peter Obi Urges Tinubu to Come Clean on Identity, Certificates

By Bliss Okperan

The candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, has called on the President of Nigeria, Mr Bola Tinubu, to reintroduce himself to Nigerians, saying it was time for him to come clean on his identity and others.

He made this appeal at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, noting that the identity crisis and the educational certificate saga Mr Tinubu was currently battling was doing reputational damage to the country.

The former Governor of Anambra State stressed that the personal identity of a leader is too sensitive and central to the function of the office he currently occupies to be trifled with and disguised.

“It is about integrity, morality, values and the rule of law that defines the character of a nation and its capacity.”

“His true identity is a matter of grave national and international interest; the people deserve to know with certainty the true identity of their leader. And these override whatever rights he may have to personal privacy,” Mr Obi, who has taken his election appeal to the Supreme Court, said.

He further stated that the office Mr Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, currently occupies demands the disclosure of his true identity, and should not delegate this to his spokespersons, party or lawyers.

“It is his time to do the right thing, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Mr Obi declared.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Atiku Abubakar, in this year’s presidential poll, had approached a court in the United States to force Chicago State University (CSU) to release the academic records of Mr Tinubu for the prosecution of his case at the tribunal.

The university President Tinubu claimed he attended, though confirmed he was their student, confirmed that the certificate he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not from them.

Mr Tinubu, who had earlier claimed when he was the Governor of Lagos that he attended Government College Ibadan, now said he went to Government College Lagos in 1970, when the school was actually established in 1974.