The BBC’s Global Disinformation Team says there is no evidence that the diploma President Bola Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was forged.
Allegations that Tinubu’s certificates were faked went viral on social media following the release by Chicago State University (CSU) of his academic records last week.
The corporation said it had looked at some of the most widely circulated claims, saying that the release of the president’s academic documents was the culmination of a judicial case filed in August by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Abubakar was hoping to have the victor disqualified after accusing him of falsifying the CSU diploma or Bachelor of Science in Business Administration awarded in 1979 that he submitted to INEC.
The documents requested by Abubakar were: A copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979, A copy of the diploma CSU gave to Mr Tinubu in 1979, Copies of diplomas with the same font, seal, signatures, and wording awarded to other students that are similar to what CSU awarded to Mr Tinubu in 1979.
The BBC said it was given access to the deposition transcript by Abubakar’s spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu.
Some social media users in Nigeria allege that the deposition and the diplomas released by CSU confirmed that the diploma submitted to INEC by Tinubu was forged. This claim was also repeated by one of Abubakar’s lawyers, Kalu Kalu, at a press conference last week.
We found there was no evidence to support this claim. The CSU released several diplomas issued between 1979 and 2003. We analysed all of them. There are three different diplomas for Mr Tinubu that we refer to throughout our analysis.
“The original one, from 1979, which he has said in the past was lost when he went into exile in the 1990s, the second one, that he submitted to INEC – supposedly a replacement diploma from CSU (it is similar to diplomas issued by CSU in the 1990s) and additionally, CSU holds another replacement diploma for Tinubu that they say is probably from the early 2000s that he never collected,” BBC reports.
The BBC said the allegations on social media were based on a comparison between the document Tinubu submitted to INEC and the 1979 diplomas released by CSU.
During Mr Westberg’s deposition, Mr Atiku’s lawyer focused on the copy of the diploma President Tinubu handed to the electoral commission and suggested that it was unlike any of the diplomas released by CSU.
“However, while Mr Westberg agreed with Ms Liu that the diploma in question does not look like the samples from 1979, he stated that the certificate actually looks like three of the diplomas CSU released to Mr Abubakar. Our analysis confirms this.
“It turns out that the discrepancy in the appearance of the diploma is down to it having been re-issued in the 1990s. Mr Westberg said the template of CSU’s diploma has changed several times over the years. He said any request for a new diploma would resemble the current template at that time, no matter when the student graduated.
“As such, if Mr Tinubu had reordered his diploma in the late 1990s, what he would have been given would look like what was obtainable then
Three of the diplomas dating from the 1990s that CSU submitted were similar to Mr Tinubu’s. One of them, which bears the date 18 December 1998, is identical (aside from the names, class of degree, and dates) to the diploma Tinubu handed over to INEC,” it reported.
“Mr Westberg also stated that CSU does not keep notes of when a graduate asks for the reissuing of a diploma and therefore Mr Tinubu’s request for a copy of the diploma was not recorded.
“The copy he gave to the election commission had part of the university logo missing, which Mr Westberg said in his deposition was possibly “cut off” when it was photocopied.
“We analysed the diploma. It appears in fact that its bottom part was not included during the photocopy process,” BBC said.
The BBC said it reached out to Mr Tinubu’s team to get a copy of the diploma in question and that they sent what they said was the only existing copy of the diploma.
“It is a black and white photocopy identical to what was submitted to INEC. Another claim, made by a fact-checking organisation in Nigeria, was that the diploma Tinubu submitted was not from CSU as its diplomas do not include the phrase “with honors” under the degree name.
“But the BBC found that while this was not reflected in the other diplomas released by CSU, it does appears in Mr Tinubu’s diploma issued in the early 2000s, which was authenticated by Mr Westberg during his deposition.
It has the words “with honors” – a match with the diploma with the same detail submitted by the president to INEC. Mr Westberg said that the school could authenticate this particular diploma because it was still in its possession as it was never picked up.
“Not every student graduates from university with honours. Mr Tinubu, as attested to by CSU in several court documents seen by the BBC, did graduate from CSU with honours,” it added.
The BBC said it contacted CSU with questions about its diplomas and that it referred them to a statement that read in part: “We are confident and always have been in the veracity and integrity of our records regarding Tinubu’s attendance and completion of graduation requirements”.