ABUJA: Aide of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar have launched a fresh attack on President Bola Tinubu, questioning his credibility over recent claims about his educational background and his close association with controversial Belarusian businessman Alexander Zingman.
During the launch of the Renewed Hope Mechanization Programme in Abuja on Monday, Tinubu introduced Zingman as a very good friend and former schoolmate at Chicago State University (CSU).
The statement quickly sparked criticism from the Atiku camp, which accused the president of making yet another misleading claim about his academic history and age.
This latest narrative about being classmates with Alexander Zingman is not only suspicious it is insulting to Nigerians, a spokesperson from Atiku’s media office said. Zingman was born in 1966. Tinubu claimed to graduate from CSU in 1979. That would make Zingman just 13 years old at the time. How is that possible?
The Atiku camp also raised alarm over the president’s public friendship with Zingman, who has been linked to arms deals in Africa and serves as a major figure in AFTRADE DMCC, a Dubai-based company involved in agricultural and mining equipment across the continent.
In 2021, Zingman was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on allegations of illegal arms trading, though he was released without charge after 12 days.
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This is not just a question of Tinubu’s age or academic record anymore. It’s about the integrity of the presidency, the statement said. The president is openly aligning with a foreign businessman whose name has appeared in arms trafficking investigations and shady African deals. Is this who we want shaping Nigeria’s future?
Zingman, who claimed in a past interview that he studied at the University of Illinois, Chicago not Chicago State University (CSU) has since appeared in photographs at the Abuja event shared by AFTRADE DMCC.
The company praised its involvement in Nigeria’s mechanization programme, reinforcing suspicions that Zingman’s influence now extends into Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
The Atiku camp is calling on Nigerians and the international community to demand greater transparency from Tinubu’s administration.
Nigerians deserve answers not just about Tinubu’s ever changing academic story, but also about the questionable characters he’s bringing into the corridors of power, the statement concluded.
