An American law firm has set in motion a sprawling legal battle to compel revocation of President Bola Tinubu’s only academic qualification, Peoples Gazette can report, heralding a bitter confrontation that could potentially overshadow the Nigerian leader’s 2027 reelection message. 

Chicago-based Options Law Group, P.C. has prepared what an insider described to The Gazette as “a thermonuclear lawsuit” to push Chicago State University to void a diploma it awarded to Mr Tinubu in 1979, citing egregious forgery on which the qualification was procured. 

The firm said it settled on a court battle after the CSU administrators spurned a morass of demand letters sent between March and April 2025, asserting strongly that it was no longer tenable for the school to continue standing by Mr Tinubu’s certificate after it had been established that the high school records he submitted to enrol at the Illinois institution were falsified.

“If we do not hear from you or your general counsel by the end of the fourteen (14) days, all legal rights shall be explored, including, but not limited to, legal proceedings necessary in accordance with state and federal laws,” the firm warned in an April 1, 2025, missive to the school, copying several authorities, including Illinois’ attorney-general’s office. 

The new battlefront, opened two years after the Nigerian leader weathered a shot but disparaging legal challenge over whether or not he graduated from the school as asserted in his application to run for president in 2023, was launched by the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy, a pan-Nigerian civic group based in Aba. 

“Our client has presented facts which a reasonable person can conclude that Bola A. Tinubu, a former student of the Chicago State University, class of 1979, misrepresented material and misleading facts on admission application to CSU in 1977,” the school said in a separate letter to Illinois Attorney-General Kwame Raoul. “Based on Tinubu’s distortions, he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in 1979.”

The Gazette was told the firm has now prepared to approach federal and state courts for a sweeping mandamus, a judicial command ordering an entity to perform a specific duty, which in this instance would be the cancellation of Mr Tinubu’s certificate by the university’s administrators.

The school had in 2023 stated under oath that it awarded a degree in business and administration to Mr Tinubu. However, it could not ascertain whether or not the certificate issued to Mr Tinubu upon graduation matched the document he presented to Nigeria’s electoral office to meet eligibility criteria. 

Still, the records surrendered by the CSU following a federal judge’s subpoena showed Mr Tinubu was admitted into the institution after submitting certification he purportedly obtained from Government College, Lagos, in 1970. However, the high school did not exist until 1974, and graduates were not produced until several years later.  

The additional questions raised by Mr Tinubu’s records from CSU prompted Options Law Group’s client, the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy, to pursue outright revocation of the president’s bachelor’s degree, which was the only academic qualification he presented. He did not submit credentials from primary or secondary education to the electoral office INEC.

The centre’s director, Kalu Kalu Agu, is an associate of Atiku Abubakar—Mr Tinubu’s main political opponent, against whom the Nigerian leader prevailed in the 2023 presidential elections.

Mr Kalu, a legal practitioner, has for years cast himself as a major advocate for Mr Abubakar in the media and political meetings. He has also represented Mr Abubakar’s PDP in many court cases in the past. Still, he strongly denied to The Gazette that Mr Abubakar sponsored him to retain Options Law Group for the battle over Mr Tinubu’s certificate, which, if successful, could disqualify the president from seeking reelection.

A spokesperson for Mr Abubakar did not immediately comment on whether or not the former vice-president had provided financial or material support to Mr Kalu or had prior knowledge of efforts to challenge Mr Tinubu’s certificate in U.S. courts.

Presidency sources over the weekend said that Mr Tinubu was already aware of the moves and had shown severe concern. 

But the president’s top counsel quickly pushed back on any prospects of the case moving through the U.S. court, saying it was already resolved and any attempts to resurrect it would be deemed frivolous. 

“The U.S. judicial system has no tolerance for frivolous expeditions,” the president’s lawyer Oluwole Afolabi said in a statement to The Gazette. “This is a matter that has been litigated to the fullest, and Nigerians have already moved on.” 

“President Bola Tinubu has no time for nuisance lawsuits, either. He’s busy delivering on his agenda to usher in a safe and secure social and economic future for the people of Nigeria,” Mr Aolabi, a senior advocate of Nigeria, added.

Still, a person familiar with the law firm’s theory said there are strong case laws on degree revocation across several U.S. jurisdictions.

The Gazette’s checks showed American institutions have a history of expelling students and revoking certificates of persons found to have falsified records submitted in the application process for their degrees.

The Gazette reported in April that the University of Missouri expelled Mercy Ojedeji after discovering he forged his credentials, which included transcripts, letters of recommendation and an English language test to secure a PhD programme in Chemistry. His student visa, $49,000 scholarship and other benefits were also cancelled.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1987 upheld that a university reserved the right to revoke the degree of any student “on the grounds of fraud in its procurement,” while deciding Crook v. Baker.

According to the court, allowing a student to parade a fraudulently obtained degree would erode the confidence that the public placed in such institutions and awards.

In a separate yet similar case of Trauth v. K.E.  in 2020, the Texas Court of Appeals said a university should revoke a degree if there were facts supporting “academic dishonesty.” In all cases, the court mandated fair hearings for students to defend themselves before their degrees were rescinded. 

For decades, Mr Tinubu’s political career has been dogged by allegations of academic fraud that came to a head in 2023 when the Chicago university denied issuing the certificate that the Nigerian leader submitted to the electoral body, INEC, during pre-election paperwork. 

Although the school confirmed Mr Tinubu was an alumnus, CSU registrar Caleb Westberg said in his deposition that the school could not confirm issuing the contentious certificate presented to INEC.

But, unlike the 2023 battle, which was waged directly by Mr Abubakar, the civic group’s argument is no longer about whether the Nigerian leader forged the CSU certificate but the high school qualification he tendered to be eligible for university admission.

The Nigerian Constitution states that a person is qualified to be president if “he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.”

Whereas Mr Tinubu claimed he obtained a high school qualification from Government College, Lagos, he did not submit it to INEC to run for office. Instead, he only presented his degree from CSU as the only surviving qualification he had to scale constitutional eligibility requirements. 

However, he filed a sworn declaration that his primary and high school documents went missing following a breach of his Lagos home by the military junta in the 1990s. He was in exile as a political dissident at the time, and it was unclear whether or not he filed a contemporaneous police report detailing the theft.

The Nigerian Supreme Court sidestepped key issues around the certificate when they arose as part of Mr Abubakar’s lawsuit over the 2023 presidential election. But the court could be forced to confront the question again should the lawsuit dominate the 2027 campaign while moving through the U.S. court system.