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Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party believes Nigerians are now regarded as fraudsters and certificate forgers because of the forgery allegation against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Obi said President Tinubu’s certificate saga at the Chicago State University in the United States has worsened the image of Nigeria.
The former Governor of Anambra State said this at a press conference organised by his party on Wednesday, October 11, 2023.
He said, “The Chicago University matter and Chief Bola Tinubu’s many other identity question marks have further worsened Nigeria’s less-than-glorious image internationally. Uninformed outsiders now see every Nigerian as a fraudster, certificate forger or identity thief.”
Obi maintained that Tinubu's certificate saga caused Nigeria a global embarrassment, adding that the President would have saved himself and the nation the embarrassment if he had come out clean.
"The controversy is unnecessary, just as the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided. In my opinion, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu should have saved the nation and himself from this protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety," he said.
He, therefore, asked President Tinubu to reintroduce himself to Nigerians by providing all the information the people of the country need to know about him including his birthplace, academic and his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) records.
"Chief Bola Tinubu still owes Nigeria and the world a simple obligation and I respectfully call on him to immediately perform a simple task: reintroduce himself, let the world know his name, nationality, place of birth, parentage, primary and secondary schools he attended with dates, as well as the actual universities he attended and certificates obtained, he should indicate where and when he did his NYSC, and if at any time he had a change of name, that's not a crime."
Obi said his advice to Tinubu to reintroduce himself to Nigerians does not require affidavits or prolonged course process.