By Ebere Inyama
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has found what may be the simplest solution to his recurring “Chicago problem,” political analysts say. Just hide from the public eye.
For the third consecutive year, Tinubu will not personally attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. Instead, Vice President Kashim Shettima has been mandated to lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 81st UNGA.
“There will be no opportunity for journalists to resurrect those old questions about Tinubu’s time in Chicago”, said political analyst, Gregory Uzo, to TruthNigeria.
“Sometimes, the simplest diplomatic strategy is simply not to show up. This may be the safest way to avoid turning a diplomatic gathering into another international media circus, so, rather than walk into the storm, Tinubu is staying home”, Uzo added.
“Politics is not just about what you say. Sometimes, it is about where you choose not to be at a particular time”, said a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr. Hope Amechi, to TruthNigeria.
“For Tinubu, New York 2026 appears to be one of those places”, Hope added.
Supporters Pushing Tinibu into Desperation
In a video posted online in early September 2026, a Tinubu supporter who leads the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, urged President Tinibu to block the release of his Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records by the FBI.
“Do everything you can to stop the FBI from releasing the documents, because if they do, the U.S government can call for an arrest…”, Ayodele said in the video.
Ayodele said powerful political interests within and outside Nigeria are pushing to weaponize these U.S. documents so as scuttle President Tinubu’s second term bid.
Earlier in August, 2026, President Tinubu had asked a United States federal court to reject a request for the release of records relating to investigations over his involvement in an alleged international drug-trafficking and money-laundering in the United States in the 1990s.
The request for the release of Tinibu’s FBI records was made by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan. The case, Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys et al., is pending before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under case number 1:23-cv-01816-BAH.
University Certificate Controversy
At the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja in June, 2023, a witness brought by Tinubu’s political rival, Atiku Abubakar, reportedly testified that the transcript in aid of admission of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu into Chicago State University (CSU) indicates that the person bearing that name is of female gender.
While the PEPC admitted the documents and marked them as exhibits, the judge of U.S. District Court for the Northern District, Jeffrey Gilbert, reserved judgment in the case after acknowledging that there was a transcript bearing Bola A. Tinubu released by CSU under a separate court subpoena that carried the owner’s gender as female.
But four months later, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal struck out the appeals of Atiku Abubakar, but he headed for the apex court, asking to file extra evidence against Tinubu on alleged forgery.
At the Supreme Court, the Chairman of the seven-member panel sitting over the matter, Justice John Okoro, said the two letters sent to the court by Chicago State University contained contradictory information.
“There are two conflicting letters from the Chicago State University – one authenticating the president’s certificate and another discrediting it. Which do we rely on?,” Okoro had said during the hearing of the application by Atiku Abubakar’s counsel.
Abubakar had sought Tinubu’s academic record from Chicago State University so as to prove his allegation that the president submitted forged documents to INEC.
Certificate Forgery Decriminalized by Nigerian Lawmakers
In February, 2026, President Bola Tinubu signed the newly amended Electoral Act 2026 into law. According to the provisions of the amended Electoral Act 2026, certificate forgery is no longer a valid ground for filing post-election petitions
Based on the new amendment, the Electoral Act 2026 imposes heavy financial penalties on petitioners who file cases based on grounds not recognized by the Act. Hence, a petitioner who files a lawsuit against a certificate forger risks being fined at least ₦10 million ($7,300), while their legal counsel faces fines of at least ₦5 million ($3,600).
“The ultimate measure of an electoral system is not only how quickly it produces winners but how convincingly it answers the question of whether those winners were always legally entitled to stand,” wrote President of the Campaign for Social Justice and Constitutional Democracy in Africa, Dr Festus Ogwuche.
“Under the Criminal Code Act and Penal Code Act, forgery remains a serious criminal offence. That position is unaffected by electoral legislation and no electoral statute, however detailed, can validly extinguish the criminal character of forgery,” Ogwuche added in a recent article published by The Guardian.
Ebere Inyama reports on conflict and religious freedom for TruthNigeria.
