By Taiwo Olanegan
That Bola Ahmed adopted the Tinubu name is common newspapers knowledge. He is not a biological product of now deceased Madam Tinubu. However, under Yoruba custom and even law, he remains her son. If Asiwaju adopted the Tinubu name more than 40 years ago before his politicking, then it would be mischievous to say Bola Ahmed changed his name to become a Tinubu for political expediency. Was it wrong for him to drop and add a name? Who says? You could this very moment drop your names and choose to bear Mungo Park. Or Aliko Elumelu. No law or tradition can restrain you.
Did he attend a primary school? He must have. Everyone in Bola’s period did. It was a western region policy since tuition was almost free. But l suppose, his claimed school is now cancelled or closed. My father attended Owo Commercial College in the 1940’s. But there is no physical structure to point to its existence forty years after. Bola Tinubu accepted he didn’t attend a Nigerian secondary school. This fact is published in many public papers. Chief Afe Babalola SAN didn’t attend secondary school either. And Governor Aminu Tambuwal did not also.
There are several eminent Nigerians in various fields who did not go through the conventional route of education as we do today. Some enrolled in private lessons or engaged in self-study to write the GCE ordinary/advance level and later qualified to be doctors, lawyers and professors. And by the way, no law requires you to attend a secondary school. Your parents/private teachers can teach you at home and at 13 or 14 you write the GCE. Sure, you can!
Bola Tinubu claimed he enrolled at Richard Daley College, Chicago, Illinois, to obtain prerequisite credits that qualified him for his Chicago State University degree. And good for him the university had replied to a public query to authenticate his attendance and graduation from it. But in filing the INEC forms, Tinubu did not fill in spaces meant for lower schooling, instead, he deposed to an affidavit. He claimed his lower school certificates obtained were destroyed by the military at the invasion of his house. An affidavit is an oath that assumes every claim you made thereon is truth on the face of it except proven false by another oath or contrary evidence. An oath or affidavit simplicita ends all argument.
Therefore, can you approach the courts to stop Bola Tinubu presidential candidacy for not revealing all the details about his pre university schooling and or details about his rumoured name of Amoda Sangodele from lragbiji, Osun State? Sure. Your pay would make a lawyer richer, but that trip would be analogous to chasing wild geese.
The 1999 Constitution requires a presidential candidate to show evidence that he has been educated to at least a Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent. It does not mandatorily request him to submit WAEC or primary school results. So, if you had an OND or a PhD and you submit same to INEC without more, you have fulfilled the constitutional requirement proving an educational level that qualifies you to be sworn in as president.
Contesting for president/governor is not same as seeking for a job or academic position or scholarship where all obtained papers or qualifications would be mandatorily submitted for scrutiny. Not knowing this has caused a governor to lose his crown. You need to be circumspect and receive legal advice from your lawyers lest your opponent takes advantage of you. It is not every space in a form you must be quick to fill. Because you are not learned!
Should Bola Tinubu put all personal details required of him out for public consumption? Yes, he had. But it’s an election season. We like to dwell or reek in the stupor of embellished facts and stretched lies. It helps the calumnies and campaigns. I warned, worked and preached against the election and re-election of Muhammadu Buhari.
But l didn’t join the mob to call him a NEPA bill holder. A simple fact checks then showed he obtained a Masters’ degree from a US Army University. Buhari still does not show academic garrulity, but he is as educated as anyone could be. Unfortunately for mongers, these sleazy things don’t count at elections. If they do, Muhammadu Buhari shouldn’t have won in highly educated southwest – twice – with his NEPA bill certificate.
