The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has reacted to President Bola Tinubu’s certificate scandal at the Chicago State University.
Speaking on ChannelsTV’s flagship morning programme, Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, Tuggar noted that the administration of President Tinubu does not have time to waste on such “trivial matters” adding that these are distractions.
Tuggar noted that the controversy does not cast a shadow on some of the recent international engagements that the president has had.
“There is a tendency to always try to distract and detain people on such frivolous issues as opposed to facing the major issues of development. We don’t have time to waste on that,” he said.
He argued that a former president, Muhammadu Buhari, experienced a similar controversy over his academic qualifications.
“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 was the captain; he was a head boy,” he said.
The minister claimed that none of the international meetings the president has attended and interacted with have shown interest in the saga.
“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.
He added that, as a result of the critical situation the nation is in right now, Nigerians should not be upset by the certification and instead should concentrate on development, adding that the nation’s population is growing at a rate of 3% annually.
”The economic challenges we are facing – we shouldn’t be wasting time about whether 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,” he said.
Politics Nigeria recalls that Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had approached the US District Court in Northern Illinois to compel the Chicago State University (CSU), to release President Tinubu’s academic records.
Atiku argued that it would boost his suit challenging Tinubu’s election in the February 25 presidential poll.
