Afikuyomi accused of ‘lying’ about Tinubu’s education, lands prestigious position

SODEEQ ATANDA FROM FIJ

In the period leading up to the 2023 presidential election, the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation said Tokunbo Afikuyomi, a former senator from Lagos State, was the architect of the lie recorded in President Bola Tinubu’s pre-varsity educational history.

In a presidential communication on Friday, the former lawmaker made the list of 42 fresh appointments of board chairpersons approved by Tinubu.

Afikuyomi will now chair the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), an agency mandated to promote technology transfer to Nigeria.

Tinubu’s early life education history is a controversy yet to be resolved. There is no publicly verifiable information about which primary or secondary school the president attended.

In his governorship election filings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 1999 and 2003, Tinubu claimed he attended St. Paul’s Children Home School in Ibadan between 1958 and 1964. From there, he proceeded to Government College, Ibadan, between 1965 and 1968.

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

APPOINTMENT OF BOARD CHAIRPERSONS AND CEOS

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed board chairpersons for 42 federal organisations and a secretary to the board of the Civil Defence, Immigration, and Prisons Services.

The President has also appointed…

— Daddy D.O🇳🇬 (@DOlusegun) January 24, 2025

Tinubu maintained that academic history for years until credible evidence showed that those schools did not exist in the years he claimed to have attended.

Departing from that false educational trajectory, Tinubu left columns meant for primary and secondary schools on his INEC forms in 2022 blank.

His failure to fill out those sections then raised new questions on how he could have validly obtained a university diploma when he did not attend elementary school.

In response, Tinubu’s campaign office said his earlier false affiliation to the schools in Ibadan was an error for which Afikuyomi was responsible.

Bayo Onanuga, now the president’s adviser on information and strategy, claimed Afikuyomi made the errors while helping Tinubu fill out his governorship forms.

“Asiwaju was exonerated in the House of Assembly’s report because Senator Afikuyomi said he filled the form on his behalf then,” Onanuga said.