Following the scandal generated by the Chicago State University (CSU) certificate saga of President Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi has called on Tinubu to tell Nigerians his true identity.
The former Anambra State Governor at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday asked Tinubu to personally, without recourse to agents, spokespersons, make the disclosure to save the Nigerian and international community embarrassment.
Obi said, “Chief Bola Tinubu should owe Nigerians and the world a simple obligation only he can discharge. I therefore, respectfully and humbly call him to immediately and personally mount the rostrum of his present high office to perform a simple task once and for all time.
“He should reintroduce himself to the nation he governs for the avoidance of further doubts. He should let the world know his name, his nationality, his place of birth, his parentage, the primary and secondary schools he attended, with dates as well as the actual university that he attended and certificates obtained. He should indicate clearly where and when he did his National Youth Service.
“In addition, if at any time he had a change of name, he should state so clearly and the circumstances. That in itself is no crime. This is a simple task that will take only a few minutes. It doesn’t require an affidavit, or long court process, agents or surrogates. The task is one that only Chief Bola Tinubu through a direct personal statement can perform.
“He must perform this task urgently in order to lay to rest once and for the last time many lingering doubts and speculations about his true identity.
The former Anambra State Governor added, “A leader cannot outsource a clear unambiguous personal statement about his identity to political surrogates, official spokespeople, lawyers, or any other person no matter how highly placed.
“A matter of personal identity of a leader is too sensitive and central to the function of the office he occupies, to be trifle with, outsourced or disguised under the clog of official, it is about integrity, morality, values and the rule of law that defines the character of a nation and its people.
“His present capacity as a leader of a nation of over 200 million Nigerians, his true identity is a matter of great national and international interest. The people deserve to know with certainty the true identity of their leader, and this overrides whatever rights he may have to personal privacy.
“In addition, the international community deserves to know the true identity of the person with whom it may engage on behalf of Nigeria.
Obi further said, “Having stood for an election of elevated office of the president of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Bola Tinubu have implicitly undertaken to cede the rights of private citizen in favour of life of open disclosure of his true identity and other circumstances that might be of public interest,
“His personal integrity demands no less. The office currently occupied, demands such and even more.
“Respect for the integrity and esteem of the Nigerian nation within the comity of nations makes it even more incumbent and compulsory. It is time to do the right thing,” Obi said.
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