A befuddled Judge Jeffrey Gilbert of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Tuesday reserved judgement on the subpoena application for Bola Tinubu’s records, after learning that the Nigerian president’s college transcript, which he used to gain admission into Chicago State University (CSU) in 1977, indicated it belonged to a female.
The judge said he was prepared to rule on the matter when he scheduled a hearing for September 12, but he needed additional time to digest his decision after learning that there was a transcript bearing Bola A. Tinubu released by CSU under a separate court subpoena that carried the owner’s gender as female.
The female issue was raised by Mr Tinubu’s lawyer, Christopher Carmichael, who tried to use it to demonstrate the frivolity of the case before the court, dismissing it as a fishing expedition based entirely on a conspiracy theory being peddled in Nigeria by Mr Tinubu’s political detractors.
‘It is like Donald Trump coming up in 2010 to claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States,” Mr Carmichael said.
But Alexandre de Gramont, lawyer to plaintiff Atiku Abubakar, quickly informed the court that the possibility of Bola Tinubu, who attended CSU in the same 1970s, being a woman was first revealed in records produced by the school itself. The school had, in mid-2022, submitted Mr Tinubu’s records in its possession while complying with a state court subpoena.
The records, handed over to Nigerian civil rights lawyer Mike Enahoro-Ebah, showed that Bola A. Tinubu was admitted into CSU in 1977 based on a transcript from Southwest College Chicago that was marked as belonging to a female.
Judge Gilbert became confused after CSU lawyer Michael Hayes confirmed that the school had indeed turned in records to Mr Enahoro-Ebah in 2022, but insisted that Mr Tinubu, the Nigerian president, was the one who attended and graduated from the school.
Mr Hayes, however, said he could not explain the contradictions, and the school’s administrators would not be able to state under oath that the certificate Mr Tinubu has been parading was genuine or otherwise.
“Is the diploma authentic or is it a forgery?
My client can’t answer yes to either of those questions,” Mr Hayes said of Mr Tinubu’s certificate that he submitted to be Nigeria’s president.
Consequently, a confused Judge Gilbert said he would need additional time to process the confusion, especially given Mr Hayes’ confirmation of the records released last year by CSU.
“I will have to take this matter under advisement,” the judge said, adding that his court would communicate a new judgement or hearing date with counsel to all parties. The judge said additional documents or clarification about already submitted documents may be required from the parties.
Mr Gilbert’s docket was updated at night on September 12, hours after the judgement, and also confirmed that the matter is “taken under advisement for the reasons stated on the record.”
Judge Gilbert had earlier in the hearing said the court has always taken a liberal and broad view in granting similar requests under Section 1782, a statute that allows the release of documents and evidence domiciled in the U.S. to be obtained and used in a foreign proceeding, especially with countries that have legal reciprocity arrangements with the U.S. like Nigeria.
Mr Abubakar, the plaintiff and presidential candidate of the February polls, seeks the subpoena to clarify outstanding questions regarding Mr Tinubu’s background, particularly the age, gender and citizenship status under which he was admitted to CSU, records he said he wanted to use to prove his case that Mr Tinubu should not be Nigeria’s president because he submitted a forged certificate to electoral office INEC in violation of Nigeria’s Constitution.
