The ongoing debate surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s educational credentials has taken an unexpected turn as Dr. Don Pedro Obaseki, the Director of Research and Strategy for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential elections, raised questions about Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s academic history. In a recent interview with AIT, Dr. Obaseki alleged that Prof. Wole Soyinka, a distinguished Nigerian playwright and Nobel Prize winner, had been rusticated from the University of Ibadan (UI) during his academic pursuits. This revelation has added a new layer of complexity to the controversy surrounding President Tinubu’s academic records.
The backdrop of these claims is the heated political debate over President Tinubu’s educational qualifications, a matter that has been brought before the Supreme Court by the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. Dr. Obaseki’s stance on the matter is that the crux of the issue should not focus solely on whether Tinubu attended Chicago State University, but rather on whether he genuinely graduated or possibly falsified his diploma. To draw a parallel and emphasize his point, the PDP Research Director referred to Prof. Wole Soyinka’s academic background. According to Obaseki, Prof. Soyinka did attend the University of Ibadan in the 1950s, but he asserted that the Nobel Laureate could not produce a diploma from the institution due to being rusticated before completing his program.
Obaseki argued, “It is not whether he attended or whether the person is a female or a male that attended; the issue is the certificate.” During the interview, Obaseki cited specific documents, referencing file 26, file 7, of a deposition. He noted that these documents indicated that the University of Ibadan did not recognize Prof. Soyinka’s certificate, marking the first time during the proceedings that such a certificate had come under scrutiny.
As this intriguing debate continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how these revelations will impact the larger discourse surrounding the educational backgrounds of prominent figures in Nigerian politics.
