Law

Chicago State University Clarifies President Bola Tinubu’s Gender During Enrollment

Published

7 months ago

October 4, 2023

Stella Charles Akupue

Chicago State University Clarifies President Bola Tinubu's Gender During Enrollment

The Chicago State University (CSU) has clarified that President Bola Tinubu applied to the institution as a male rather than female, addressing a recent controversy. The University Registrar, Caleb Westberg, provided this information during an oral deposition supporting the academic records of President Bola Tinubu, submitted to the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

The debate surrounding the gender of the student admitted to the school in 1977 from South West College has been resolved by Westberg, who confirmed that the institution issued a letter of admission to President Bola Tinubu as a male.

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Furthermore, the Registrar dismissed claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had contacted CSU to verify Tinubu’s attendance at the institution.

Westberg stated, ‘President Tinubu applied to the university as a male, and a letter of admission was issued to a male. My statement that Mr. Bola Tinubu graduated from CSU was based on the transcripts in our possession. I have never met Bola Tinubu. I have never seen him. He did not visit our campus. He does not donate money to the school.’

He added, ‘Diplomas are considered merely ceremonial documents in the US. In some other countries, it may be considered more. In the US, more reliance is placed on transcripts, not Diplomas. I did not rely on information from public records to conclude that President Bola Tinubu was the person who attended CSU. I am unaware that the FBI contacted CSU on whether Bola Tinubu attended CSU.’

In addition to these clarifications, Westberg also addressed his professional background and referenced Olajide Adeniji, President Tinubu’s classmate at the institution.

He stated, ‘Before CSU, I was at UC Berkeley and UC Irving. I’m sure people make mistakes in data entry from time to time. Before this lawsuit, I didn’t know anyone called Bola. It was possible that someone assumed Bola to be a female and therefore marked the SouthWest Transcript as such.’

Regarding Olajide Adeniji, the CSU Registrar confirmed their association and noted, ‘I am familiar with the affidavit filed by OLAJIDE Adeniji. I don’t recall his gender. I don’t know if Atiku Abubakar is male or female, but I heard he is a male. I can’t tell by his name.’

Westberg concluded, ‘The entries ‘1952’ and ‘1954’ could have been made in error. The person who attended Southwest College is the person who attended CSU. The courses taken by Bola Tinubu at Southwest and CSU are consistent. Right after the entry ‘F’, the SSN entered indicated in the Southwest transcript is the same as the one indicated in CSU records. That is one of the indications that we use to identify students. A Social Security is a unique identifier.'”