Tinubu certificate saga: FG doesn’t have time for frivolities, says minister

Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, says the federal government does not have time to waste on frivolous issues.

Tuggar spoke on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television.

Recently, there has been controversy surrounding the academic records of President Bola Tinubu from the Chicago State University (CSU).

Tuggar said even former President Muhammadu Buhari faced a similar ordeal.

The minister said the world leaders Tinubu met during his recent international engagements were uninterested in the certificate controversy.

“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,” Tuggar said.

“You remember that the (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 and was a head boy!

“There is a tendency to always try to distract people on such frivolous issues as opposed to facing the major issues of development. We do not have time to waste on that.

“The foreign leaders that we have been engaging and the international organisations clearly are disinterested in wasting time on such. We pay no mind to that.”

The minister urged Nigerians to rather concentrate on developmental issues.

“With the economic challenges we are facing, we should not be wasting time on some certificate; whether there is a T missing or an I has not been dotted. That should not be our primary focus at the moment,” he said.

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last elections, had prayed a US court to order the release of Tinubu’s academic records by CSU.

Those prayers were granted this week.

Abubakar is challenging the electoral victory of Tinubu at the supreme court.