TINUBU: Man from Chicago (ABUJA TODAY)
chinedu uchechukwu
TINUBU: Man from Chicago
LAGOS State governor Bola Tinubu’s name is missing from the list of the 475
pupils at the Government College, Ibadan, in 1965.
In fact, 78 pupils were admitted into three streams of form one in 1965,
each class with 26 pupils, according to Today investigation. But Bola Ahmed
Tinubu’s name, as
declared to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is not
among those admitted into any of the three streams.
The school had 355 pupils in classes one to five and 120 in lower and upper
six forms.
>From facts made available to Today, the school’s headmaster that year was
Mr. J. D. Bullock and the Vice Principal was Mr. J. E. Oni.
Conspicuously missing from the list of the teachers and pupils of the school
is the name Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Today reversed the names in many forms but came near nothing like the
governor’s known names, raising suspicion that there is a discrepancy in his
declaration to the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The headboy of the school that year was A.O. Smith; head of Carr’s house,
O.Odukoya, Field’s, P. E. Jerome, Swanston’s, F.B. Ishmael and Grer’s, and
C. Akanji. The
school has produced world-renowned scholars, industrialists and men of
letters.
Nobel Laureate in literature, Wole Soyinka; novelist and pharmacist Cyprian
Ekwensi, pioneer artist, Ben Enwonwu; mathematician Gibson N. I. Enobakhare;
engineer and
novelist T. M. Aluko; physicist Victor Olunloyo; sports ace, Harding
Ekperigin, respected journalist Olun Idowu (Akaraogun) and many other
distinguished Nigerians
passed through the portals of that institution.
In the year Tinubu declared in Form CF001 that he left the school after four
years, that is 1968, it had 490 pupils and Tinubu’s name was not one of
them.
The prestigious school had neither extension classes then nor an evening
school. It still does not have any.
As for his claim of attending the St. Paul’s Primary School, Aroloya,
Today’s team of investigators could not trace the school on the famous
street. No school bears such
a name in the immediate vicinity nor anywhere else. Today found another
school, St. John Primary School, Aroloya, one of the old schools in Lagos.
The only St. Paul’s Primary School that the long search rewarded was at
Breadfruit Street the school many notable Nigerians attended. It is about
half a mile from
Aroloya Street.
Tinubu has been a high flier in politics in the last 10 years after his
tenure as treasurer at Mobil Oil of Nigeria Limited.
He was elected a senator in the aborted Third Republic on the ticket of the
scrapped Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Really, he rode the storm of the five-year struggle to actualise the June
12, 1993 presidential election to fame. He was detained after he had helped
the late General Sani
Abacha to seize power from interim head of state, Chief Ernest Shonekan.
He fled into exile in the United States of America only to return after the
demise of the military ruler.
He is an active member of Afenifere, a Yoruba group that made him the
candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos in last January’s
governorship election,
which he won.
His term in Lagos has been a slow race, causing many inhabitants to grumble
about uncleared "mountains" of refuse, deteriorating infrastructural
facilities and general
threat to life and property by violent criminals. Lagos is the most populous
and industrialised state in Nigeria.
Before he took over the reins of power, he set up committees to look into
many aspects of the state’s life, prompting the understandable high
expectation of the people
from him. But three months of his administration so far are yet to make
meaning to average Lagosians, said a political watcher. Expectation about
setting a moral standard
is high in Lagos.
Disturbing now is the opinion of Transparency International about Nigeria
that it is a haven for crooks and confidence tricksters. This organisation,
which was once headed
by President Obasanjo, has for years been distributing bulletins throughout
the world more especially through Internet alleging that all he 419 fraud
and drug syndicates are
sponsored by top government functionaries in Nigeria.
For this reason the case against Governor Tinubu will further raise eyebrows
in the international community.
The report also states that officials and highly placed leaders in
government have for many years abetted fraud (419) in Nigeria. Nigeria added
that word to world’s
lexicon.
So, Nigerians are treated with suspicion in many parts of the world because
of this slur, which many western governments cast on their businessmen and
officials.
In the circumstance, the case against Tinubu will raise eyebrows in the
international community.
Tinubu is said to be from a well-known Lagos family with one of the most
powerful women in the state being his "mother." Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji,
leader of Lagos market
women for many years, has been a great influence on the young governor whose
astronomical political rise is legendary.
But Senator Wahab Dosumu, a member of his party and rival for the Alausa
State House, before the governor’s nomination said that Tinubu was from Osun
State.
Really, there is a Chief Tinubu at Ire, near Oshogbo, Oshun State.
Chief Tinubu was a National Council for Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC)
stalwart in old Osun Division
A schoolmaster in one of the secondary schools then in colonial Western
Nigeria, he lost the 1956 Western House election. He later defected to the
Action Group under
whose canopy he won a seat in Osun in the Western House and became a
regional minister. He was one of those who teamed up with the late Chief
Samuel Ladoke
Akintola to form the Nigerian National Democratic Party in the troubled
times of the Western Region.
Although Senator Dosumu alleged that, "it will not be right for an Oshun man
to be governor of Lagos", yet it has not been established whether they have
any relationship.
Governor Tinubu filled INEC’s Form CF001 and stated that he attended
Government College Ibadan (GCI), 1965-1968, Richard Daley College, Chicago,
1969-1971,
University of Chicago; 1972-1976; Chicago State University, 1978-1979.
But the University of Chicago has disowned Tinubu as a former student of the
institution. A reply to Today E-mail by Maxine Sullivan, the university
registrar, said: "I had
replied to an earlier request but the message was returned. We have no
person by that name in our file".
But the Chicago State University, a minor institution in Illinois, United
States of America, confirmed his attendance of the institution.
But there was another hazy claim by the governor in the form he filled for
INEC. In it he claimed he got a B.Sc. Economics from the University of
Chicago. The claim
was debunked because the institution does not offer B.Sc. Economics, but
runs a degree course in B.A. Business Administration.
All these set Today investigators to comb for more facts in the interest of
the governor and the public.
Co-incidentally, the governor swore to an affidavit to validate his claims
to INEC on December 29, 1998. In the affidavit he said he lost his
certificates during his struggle
for actualisation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential victory
of June 12, 1993 when he went into exile in America.
His victory over the governorship contestants from the All People’s Party
(APP) and the People Democratic Party (PDP) was landslide.
Again Today found a discrepancy in the ages he gave to INEC and that with
the Chicago State University.
While the one in the Form CF001 to INEC is 1952, the one with the Chicago
State University is 1954.
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