President Bola Tinubu has reluctantly agreed to allow a federal judge in the United States to provide his university certificate to his political rival, Atiku Abubakar. However, the Nigerian leader has implored Judge Nancy Maldonado to prevent the disclosure of all other details, particularly the gender and admission records, among other information, of the certificate holder.

Mr. Tinubu’s requests were made on Monday morning as part of an ongoing legal battle unfolding at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. This case was initiated by Mr. Abubakar, who has been pursuing a legal quest to establish that Mr. Tinubu was ineligible to hold the office of Nigerian president, despite his election victory in February 2023.

Mr. Tinubu secured the election with a 36 percent majority vote after Mr. Abubakar and his 2019 running mate, Peter Obi, had a falling out, dividing their potential votes and enabling Mr. Tinubu’s victory by the slimmest margin in Nigerian presidential election history.

Mr. Tinubu’s willingness to release his certificate came after narrowly avoiding full disclosure on September 21 by pleading that it would cause severe harm to his life, resulting in a stay of a magistrate judge’s order issued on September 19.

“There is harm in allowing discovery on issues and documents outside the diploma,” Mr Tinubu’s lawyers said in their full briefing to the court seeking a review of Judge Jeffrey Gilbert’s order by Ms Maldonado, a district judge.

The identity of who was admitted to Chicago State University in the 1970s became a hot topic after college transcripts revealed that the school admitted a female Bola Tinubu from Southwest College Chicago in 1977.