Foreign Affairs Minister Reacts to Controversy Over Tinubu’s Academic Records

In the midst of the ongoing controversy surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s academic credentials from Chicago State University (CSU), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has emphatically stated that the government will not waste time on what he deems “trivial matters.”

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Tuggar addressed the issue on Wednesday, asserting that the academic credentials do not overshadow the president’s recent international engagements. He stated, “There is a tendency to always try to distract people on such frivolous issues as opposed to facing the major issues of development. We don’t have time to waste on that.”

Tuggar further pointed out that former President Muhammadu Buhari had faced similar scrutiny over his educational qualifications, but it did not deter him from serving the nation. “Nobody is wasting time about certificate qualification for somebody who has been a governor of a state, served two terms, and has been on the national stage as a politician. You remember that (former) President Buhari had to go through the same thing, where people were actually questioning whether he went to secondary school or not. Someone who had classmates and was the captain? He was a head boy,” Tuggar remarked.

The minister emphasized that during Tinubu’s recent international meetings, foreign leaders and international organizations have shown no interest in the controversy. “The foreign leaders that we’ve been engaging and the international organizations clearly are disinterested in wasting time on such. We pay no mind to that,” Tuggar stated.

Tuggar urged Nigerians to shift their focus away from certification issues and concentrate on the critical challenges facing the nation, particularly the economic difficulties. He stated, “With the economic challenges we are facing, we shouldn’t be wasting time about some certificate; whether there is a T missing or an I hasn’t been dotted. That shouldn’t be our primary focus at the moment.”

This statement by the Foreign Affairs Minister comes in the wake of Atiku Abubakar’s demand for President Tinubu’s credentials from the US university.