Human rights lawyer and former Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has questioned the publicly available information regarding President Bola Tinubu’s early education, parentage and nationality.
Odinkalu made the remarks during an interview with Nigeria Info FM, in comments that have since circulated widely on social media.
He questioned the absence of publicly available records relating to Tinubu’s primary and secondary education and raised concerns about what he described as unresolved issues surrounding the President’s background.
Odinkalu also referred to suggestions that Tinubu may have been homeschooled, attributing the position to comments he said were made by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Festus Keyamo.
“But what if he was taught at home? And who now claims to have gone to university? If he was homeschooled, as Festus Keyamo posited, famously, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, then they should say so,” he said.
He argued that even if Tinubu had received homeschooling, there should ordinarily be recognised certification documenting his educational progression before university admission.
“Homeschool is a preparatory process. After that you go forward for certification, right?” he asked.
Odinkalu also questioned previous educational claims linked to Tinubu, including references to Government College, Ibadan, arguing that a university education would ordinarily be preceded by verifiable primary and secondary school records.
“Now they are trying to make up records or to clean up records in order to align with a current eligibility threshold. How do you not go through primary and secondary certification but you have a university degree?” he said.
He maintained that any school attended by a future president should regard that achievement as noteworthy, regardless of the institution’s location.
“Is it not an achievement for a school to have produced a president? No matter how remote the school could have been,” he said.
Drawing from his own experience, Odinkalu said he began primary school as an internally displaced person after the Nigerian Civil War.
“I started off primary school as an internally displaced person after the Nigerian Civil War. And I know the primary school I started off in. If I mention it to you, it’s not in any place on the map. But I take pride in it and I take pride in the fact that I passed through that primary school,” he said.
The comments have reignited public discussions on social media about President Tinubu’s early life and educational history.
However, the issues raised by Odinkalu reflect his personal assertions during the interview and were not independently verified in the material cited. Moreover, no response from the Presidency or the individuals mentioned was included in the report.
