The camp of Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, has filed a petition with the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC) regarding a report on Tinubu’s certificate. According to Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku, the BBC report, titled “Bola Tinubu diploma: No evidence Nigeria’s president forged college record”, examined the controversy surrounding the certificate submitted by President Bola Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and concluded that there was no evidence of forgery.
However, during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Shaibu stated that the matter had been brought to the attention of BBC’s top management. Shaibu also expressed his disbelief at the level of pedestrianism in the report, claiming that the three people who wrote it were not even employed by the BBC, but rather by a fact-checking team. Furthermore, he cited that one of the authors, Olaronke Alo, was a reporter and presenter at TVC, which is owned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as of 2019.
It is clear how the stories about the certificate controversy surrounding Tinubu were put together. The first paragraph reveals that the reporters obtained a certified copy of the position from Frank Shaibu, which is the basis of their report. Shaibu himself confirmed that he provided the copy to one of the reporters upon request.
However, the report also alleges that the Atiku media team did not respond to requests for comment, which has been brought to the attention of top management. A petition has also been written to the BBC to allow their platform to be used for such a “hatched job”.
Amidst the controversy, Shaibu has spoken out, stating that the allegations that Tinubu’s certificate may be forged are baseless and unfounded.