Reno Omokri has offered an explanation for the lack of conventional primary and secondary school certificates associated with President Bola Tinubu, arguing that formal schooling was not the only form of education available to Nigerians of his generation.
Omokri, who is Nigeria’s ambassador-designate to Mexico, spoke on Sunday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he addressed questions surrounding the president’s educational history.
According to him, a significant number of Nigerians who were of school age around the period Tinubu would have attended primary and secondary school were educated at home rather than in conventional schools.
“Are you aware that at the time the president went to primary school, at the time the president would have gone to primary school, secondary school, most Nigerians were not going to regular schools; a lot of them were being homeschooled,” Omokri said.
He also argued that the absence of records from a conventional school should not, on its own, be used to disqualify Tinubu from holding political office.
To illustrate his point, Omokri referred to his own family, saying his child is currently homeschooled while his Ethiopian wife also received her education through homeschooling.
The ambassador-designate further turned the argument towards those who have questioned Tinubu’s educational background, saying some of the president’s critics may themselves struggle to produce evidence of people they attended primary school with.
“If you ask some of these opponents of the president to produce their primary school classmate, they cannot,” he said.
Omokri insisted that the controversy over Tinubu’s early education does not affect his eligibility to serve as president or seek another term in 2027.
“We know for a fact that the president is qualified for the position he’s holding, for the position he wants to be reelected to,” he said.
He also pointed to Tinubu’s tertiary education as part of his defence of the president’s academic credentials.
According to Omokri, Tinubu attended Chicago State University, where he said the institution’s registrar appeared in court and confirmed that the president was admitted, attended the university and graduated.
“He went to Chicago State University. The registrar of that school went to court, and they confirmed that Tinubu was admitted, attended, and graduated from that school. That is enough,” Omokri said.