Political analyst based in Abuja, Mr. John Awolabi, has said that Chicago State University never denied Tinubu as claimed in the media.
The analyst, in a report Tuesday, was responding to a statement said to have been made by Arise TV’s journalist, Rufai Oseni who had claimed that the Chicago State University denied that Tinubu was once it’s student.
In the response, Mr Awolabi said Mr Oseni’s statement was not correct.
He said instead, the university has come out to acknowledge that Bola Tinubu, who is now the president of Nigeria, was once it’s student.
Awolabi made the statement in a report he said he conducted to ascertain the veracity of Mr Oseni’s claims.
“Rufai Oseni, a presenter on AriseTV’s The Morning Show, stirred the hornet’s nest when he claimed on Tuesday, November 22, 2022, that Chicago State University was hit with a subpoena, and based on that document, they disclaimed Bola Tinubu’s academic records. This was three months before the Presidential election.
Mr. Oseni then claimed on air that he had sourced that ‘fact’ from The Vanguard newspaper.
However, independent investigations have shown that Chicago State University deposed to an affidavit on August 23, 2023, upholding Mr. Tinubu’s academic standing as an attendee and graduate of their institution.
Also, checks on The Vanguard show that the newspaper never reported what was credited to it by Mr. Oseni, a known supporter and campaigner of Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party and a rival of President Bola Tinubu.
To date, neither AriseTV nor Mr. Oseni has done a corrigendum correcting this non-factual statement made and passed off as news to the Nigerian public.
Moreover, several Nigerians have published documents they received from Chicago State University affirming that Bola Tinubu attended and graduated from their university, including former Presidential spokesman and bestselling author Reno Omokri and popular columnist and US Professor Farooq Kperogi.
Some have suggested that passing off untruths to the public about a candidate in an election is tantamount to election interference.”
