- Safiu Kehinde
The 2023 Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has questioned President Bola Tinubu’s over the Belrusian national he claimed to be his course mate at Chicago State University (CSU).
NPO Reported that Tinubu had on Monday introduced an expatriate he identified as Alex as his colleague during his days at the CSU.
The President’s introduction of the Belrusian during a project in Abuja had reignited the controversies surrounding Tinubu’s academic history.
In what supposed to silence critics doubting his authenticity of his CSU certificate, the emergence of Alex had rather triggered more speculations with claims that the Belrusian can never be a classmate of Tinubu.
Critics and netizens had in the wake of the development made research on Alex’s profile.
He allegedly turned out to be an infamous arms trafficker, Alex Zingman.
This had since been making round on social media with critics claiming Zingman, born in 1966, can never be a classmate of the President.
Championing the claim is Atiku who in a statement issued on Tuesday by his media office held that by the year 1979, when Tinubu claimed to have graduated from CSU, Zingman would have been only 13 years old.
Atiku also raised concern over Tinubu’s association with the Belrusian who was alleged to be engaged in arms trafficking and controversial dealings across Africa.
“A basic review of publicly available information immediately calls the President’s claim into question. Mr. Alex Zingman, a Belarusian businessman whose name features prominently in controversial dealings across Africa — including allegations of arms trafficking and financial improprieties in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo — is listed in various reports as being born in 1966.
“By the year 1979, when President Tinubu claims to have graduated from CSU, Mr. Zingman would have been only 13 years old.
“Are we now to believe that the Guinness Book of Records missed the story of a 13-year-old Belarusian prodigy graduating from an American university alongside Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
“Even more troubling is the President’s casual association with a man whose international reputation is mired in scandal.” Atiku wrote.
The former Vice President further charged Tinubu to tell Nigerians why he claimed that expatriate who was 13 years-old as at he graduated from CSU happened to be his classmate.
He also questioned the President’s connection with an arms trafficker as well that credibility of his academic results.
“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why a man born in 1966 is being paraded as your classmate who graduated in 1979. Were you taught in the same classroom or in different decades?
“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know if the Alex Zingman of global infamy — the arms-linked tycoon — shares the same seat in your memories or only in a script of fiction.
“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why the mystery around your academic record deepens with every attempt to clarify it. Who truly walked the halls of Chicago State University with you?
“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why, since you claim to have presented a certificate from Government College, Lagos to gain entry into Richard Daley College in 1973, no classmate from that institution has ever spoken of sharing a desk with you.
“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know how a school founded in 1972 could issue you a certificate dated 1970—unless you were a lone prophet of a school yet unborn.
“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why you have not proudly unveiled a single verifiable classmate from your supposed years in Government College, Lagos or Government College, Ibadan or Chicago State University, the way other leaders do with ease and pride.
“Mr. President, your oath of office binds you not just to protect our nation but to honour its truth.
“The Presidency is not a sanctuary for secrets — it is a platform for integrity.
“And as such, Nigerians await not tales of Alexes from distant lands but proof, clarity, and the simple dignity of facts.” He added.