The presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reveal his true identity.
According to Peter Obi, Tinubu should not leave his identity to be defined by his aides, adding that even the international community will want to know his true identity.
Speaking during a world press conference at the LP campaign office in Abuja, yesterday, Obi said Tinubu should save Nigeria from this present kind of embarrassment by revealing his true identity.
“Tinubu should humbly and respectfully reveal his identity. Let the world know your name, nationality, certificates. You should indicate clearly where you did your NYSC. If there was a change of name, make it clear. The task is for Tinubu to urgently reveal his identity. People want to know your true identity. A leader cannot leave his identity to be revealed by proxies,” Obi said.
Obi disclosed that having followed the prolonged identity crisis that recently played out in the American Court System and the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Chicago State University (CSU) credentials of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he is distressed as a Nigerian.
According to him, in addition to the barrage of media frenzy that the matter has triggered at home and abroad, he has had the unwholesome burden of responding to embarrassing questions about Nigeria’s overall credibility as a nation to privileged audience and individuals both at home and abroad in different parts of the world where he had traveled to lately.
“The controversy is unnecessary just as the implicit global embarrassment could have been avoided. In my opinion, Chief Bola Tinubu should have saved the nation and himself from this protracted embarrassment and undue anxiety.
“Even this late in the day, however, Chief Bola Tinubu still owes the nation and the world a simple debt of obligation which only he can discharge. I call on him to immediately and personally mount the rostrum of his present high office to perform a simple task once and for all time: he should re-introduce himself to the nation he governs and to the world for the avoidance of further doubt,” Obi said.
“In his present capacity as a leader of a nation of over 200m Nigerians, his true identity is a matter of grave national and international interest. The people deserve to know with certainty the true identity of their leader and this overrides whatever rights he may have to personal privacy. In addition, the international community deserves to know the true identity of the person with whom they will engage in Nigeria.
“Having stood for an election to the elevated public office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Bola Tinubu has implicitly undertaken to cede the rights of a private citizen in favour of a life of open disclosure of his true identity, and other circumstances that may be of public interest,” he said, adding that his personal integrity and legitimacy of his present office demand no less.