The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois now has in its possession the academic records of President Bola Tinubu as an Accounting student at the Chicago State University.
The transcript is part of the documents the court asked the university to submit in respect of a civil action filed by Tinubu’s co-contestant in the last presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The transcript shows Tinubu recording As in many of the courses he took.
These include:
Principles of Economics A
Pre Calculus A
Cost Accounting A
Business Law 11 A
Intermed Acct 1 A
Business Law 1 A
Financial Management A
IMT Computer A
Advanced Acct B
Prog Analysis A
Price & Allocation Theory B
Composition C
Small Business Mgt A
Internal Auditing A
Decision Analysis A
Business Writing B
Cost Accounting A
Business Calculus B
The university confirmed that Tinubu graduated from the institution in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting.
CBS Broadcasting Inc. however reported that the university said in a statement that the United States’ federal law prevents it from providing any further information about Tinubu’s record without consent or unless allowed to do so via court order.
The institution said: “As an educational institution, we are sometimes asked to provide information related to student records. Federal law known as FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) protects the privacy of student records and limits what an institution can release.
“In August 2023, a request was made to the U.S. federal court for the university to provide information related to educational records concerning Bola Tinubu, the President of Nigeria, and a former CSU student.
“The university has confirmed Tinubu attended CSU and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree. Federal law, however, prevents us from providing any further information without consent or unless allowed to do so via court order.
“CSU is confident in the veracity and integrity of our records regarding Tinubu’s completion of graduation requirements and degree certificate. The university is not a party to the Nigerian legal proceedings that spurred this request, and a U.S. federal judge will determine whether the university will provide further requested information.
“Our response to the request for Tinubu’s academic records has been entirely consistent with our practices, policies and federal law. We would respond in exactly the same manner for any request for any student information by a third party.”
Atiku had claimed that the documents were not authentic.
It was one of his claims in the petition he filed at the Presidential Election Petition Court against Tinubu’s victory in the February election.
The court affirmed Tinubu’s victory and dismissed Atiku’s petition and similar ones by Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
