The judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District, Jeffrey Gilbert, on Tuesday, disclosed reasons he ordered Chicago State University to release President Bola Tinubu academic certificates to Nigerian opposition leader, Atiku Abubakar.
The judge said the need to
confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the certificate Tinubu submitted to the
Independent National Electoral Commission outweighed Tinubu’s personal concerns
over its consequences.
Atiku Abubakar of the People
Democratic Party (PDP) had sought a subpoena to obtain Tinubu’s academic
records following several inconsistencies that characterised the submissions
Tinubu certified under oath to the Nigerian electoral office.
Tinubu had fought to have his
records blocked and inaccessible to Atiku, who argued he applied for the
subpoena directing discovery of his credentials from Chicago State University
(CSU) in order to seek Tinubu’s nullification at Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
Tinubu said granting his
opponent access to his records would infringe on his privacy rights under
Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act (FERPA), a U.S. law that protects
academic records of students.
But Judge Gilbert, in his ruling on September 19, said that Tinubu weakened his education privacy rights when he submitted a contentious certificate to run for office in 2022.
He also added that the
opposition candidate’s election petition, in which the records he sought would
be used, far outweighed Tinubu’s privacy interest, because he himself exposed
his records to public scrutiny by submitting a controversial diploma to INEC,
knowing the political stakes of other contenders.
Gilbert said FERPA permitted
records disclosure “if it is necessary to comply with a lawfully issued
subpoena or judicial order.”
“Here, the court finds that
applicant’s interest in obtaining Intervenor’s records from CSU outweighs
intervenor’s privacy rights because intervenor put his diploma at issue by
submitting it to the INEC.”
“There is, however, a
‘significantly heavier burden’ on the party requesting educational records to
show that the interest in obtaining the records outweighs the privacy interest
of the student,” the court ruled.
The judge said Abubakar
satisfied the burden and met the criteria for Section 1782, the statute that
allows the U.S. to turn over records “for use in a proceeding before a foreign
tribunal.”
Gilbert ordered CSU to provide
the former vice-president with all the requested records within two days.
“For all of the reasons
discussed above, Atiku Abubakar’s application pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 for
an order directing discovery from Chicago State University for use in a foreign
proceeding [ECF No. 1] is granted,” Mr Gilbert ruled. “Respondent CSU shall
produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to requests for
production Nos. 1 through 4 (as narrowed by the court) in applicant subpoena
within two days of the entry of this memorandum opinion and order.”
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