In a fresh legal challenge threatening his reelection bid, President Bola Tinubu has been dragged before a Federal High Court in Kano over multi-layered allegations of certificate forgery, with a civil society group demanding his disqualification from the 2027 presidential election.
The lawsuit, filed by the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy (CFRPA), revives the highly controversial debate surrounding the President’s academic credentials which heavily dominated the aftermath of the 2023 general elections.
According to court documents SaharaReporters obtained, the suit, marked FHC/K/CS/312/2026, lists President Tinubu, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Chicago State University (CSU) as defendants.
The legal assault builds on years of intense scrutiny regarding Tinubu’s background. The plaintiff is leaning heavily on previous disclosures to assert that the President is constitutionally unfit to seek re-election.
In its statement of claims, the CFRPA alleged that Tinubu presented a forged academic certificate from Chicago State University and a fake National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate to INEC during the 2023 presidential screening.
Going further into his foundational education, the group exposed a glaring mathematical and historical flaw in the President’s official narrative.
The plaintiff contended that Tinubu could not have attended Government College, Lagos, as he claimed. According to school records, Government College, Lagos was established in 1974—exactly four years after Tinubu allegedly graduated from it.
Consequently, the CSO argued that Tinubu does not possess a valid secondary school certificate, which is the baseline constitutional requirement to contest for the highest office in Nigeria.
The group argued that the certified records released by CSU in 2023 under judicial compulsion revealed deep anomalies, including a forged University of Cambridge General Certificate of Education (GCE) attached to the credentials.
The plaintiff referenced a 2023 U.S. court ruling in In Re: Application of Atiku Abubakar (No. 23 CV 05099), which originally compelled Chicago State University to release Tinubu’s academic records, insisting those records revealed false entries and inconsistencies.
It claimed that INEC had failed to act on its petition dated June 19, 2026, demanding clarification on Tinubu’s eligibility before taking the matter to court.
Determined to block the President from exploiting incumbency factors in the next general election cycles, the plaintiff is seeking heavy judicial reliefs.
The prayers placed before the Federal High Court include a formal judicial declaration that the Chicago State University certificate presented by Tinubu is a forgery, an order compelling INEC to disqualify Bola Tinubu from participating in the 2027 presidential election, and an order directing Chicago State University to permanently strike Tinubu’s name from its academic alumni roster.
They are also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining INEC from ever uploading, accepting, or recognising Tinubu’s name as a presidential candidate for the 2027 polls.
To back its claims, the advocacy group submitted affidavits of non-multiplicity of action, detailed witness statements, and copies of its formal letters to the NYSC and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) demanding an official disclaimer on the controversial NYSC discharge certificate.
INEC and the presidency are yet to issue official responses to this latest legal ambush, which promises to reignite a fierce national debate over political accountability and the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral gatekeeping.
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