Former Sports and Youth Minister Solomon Dalung has made his academic records available for public scrutiny on social media.
He said he did this because of the controversy surrounding the credentials of President Bola Tinubu and his allies.
Dalung had shared his certificates from secondary school, law school, and University of Jos on the X platform last Saturday.
He wrote: “I am an alumnus of the University of Jos, Nigeria. I surrender my academic records for public scrutiny.”
On Tuesday, he explained his decision on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
He said: “I voluntarily made my credentials available for public scrutiny. The reason behind this decision stems from the ongoing intense international and national brouhaha surrounding the issue of academic credentials in Nigeria.
“The President of Nigeria and his political allies are going from one court to another in America and Nigeria regarding their credentials. Now, what is going on has made everyone in Nigeria who owns a certificate a suspect.”
He added that anyone who doubts his qualifications can go to court to demand his transcript from the University of Jos.
He said: “I have also put my certificate out publicly. If anyone is not satisfied, they can also go to court to compel the University of Jos to release my transcript.”
Dalung also expressed his respect for President Tinubu and said he was not mocking him over the certificate issue. However, he blamed the President’s handlers for mismanaging the situation and creating more problems for him.
He said: “I have a lot of respect for the President. I don’t envy him with whatever he is going through with this certificate thing. I think it is being mismanaged by his handlers. Those who are creating more problems with this issue are his handlers.
“The more they talk, the more they introduce new issues that people capitalise on to add more burden on the President. This affects the President directly.”
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, had filed a lawsuit against President Bola Tinubu in a United States court, alleging that he forged his Chicago State University certificate, which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission before the February 25 presidential election.
