The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West has described the appointment of former Governor of Lagos State and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Chancellor of the Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso as an insult on the academic community in Nigeria.
The party, which called on all stakeholders in the Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, especially the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to stand against the appointment said; “appointing a man who forged his academic certificates as Chancellor of a university will further debase the academic integrity of the country’s universities.”
PDP Zonal Publicity Secretary, Hon. Kayode Babade said in a statement issued in Ibadan today, that; “it will be suicidal to holders of academic certificates from Nigeria tertiary institutions if we continue to debase our academic integrity with appointments of people with questionable integrity as heads of our universities.”
The PDP said it was not surprised that the ACN governments in Oyo and Osun States could take their worship of Tinubu as their gods to the ridiculous level of appointing him as head of a university in spite of his known record as a certificates forger, because the ACN the itself is peopled by men of questionable characters.
“It is on record that Tinubu forged certificate of Government College, Ibadan and submitted same to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 1999 as part of his academic credentials.
“Tinubu also went further to claim in INEC FORM CF. 001 and the affidavit sworn to at Ikeja High Court of Justice on December 29, 1998 that he did attend and obtained O’ Level certificate from Government College, Ibadan.
“In the same INEC Form CF. 001, Tinubu lied that he was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the United States.
“Curiously however, in the INEC Form he filled in 2003, Tinubu did not include these two academic claims. He simply wrote; ‘Not Applicable’ on both his O’ Level and Post Graduate qualifications, meaning that he (Tinubu) knew that he actually lied about his attendance of Government College, Ibadan and qualification as a Certified Public Accountant.
“Courtesy of ACN Governors Rauf Aregbesola and Abiola Ajimobi of Osun and Oyo States respectively, such a character is now the one to preside over the Convocation ceremonies of LAUTECH where certificates will be issued. This is insulting!
“The academic community must therefore rise in defence of LAUTECH and protect its integrity from being debased on the altar of politics of god-fatherism being practised in the ACN,” PDP said.
