A former Senator of Kogi West, Dino Melaye, has reignited controversy over President Bola Tinubu’s academic history, questioning how the president could produce university credentials when, according to him, no former primary or secondary school classmate has publicly emerged to corroborate his educational history.
Melaye made the claims in an interview snippet on the Kaa Truth Podcast released on his official X handle on Friday, August 14, 2026, where he sharply criticised what he described as inconsistencies surrounding Tinubu’s academic records.
“You have no primary school, you have no secondary school, and you are releasing university certificate. How? How?” Melaye said.
The former senator further claimed that Tinubu was uniquely difficult to trace through his early educational history, arguing that no individual had publicly identified themselves as the president’s former classmate at either the primary or secondary school level.
“Tinubu is the only Nigerian that has no classmates,” Melaye said, recalling a previous challenge he issued on Twitter.
According to him, he had offered a N5 million reward to anyone who could produce evidence of having been Tinubu’s classmate.
“The other time I challenged, I made a challenge on Twitter. I said anybody who can show me one classmate of Tinubu, I will give the person N5 million,” he said.
Melaye claimed that two months after issuing the challenge, nobody came forward to identify themselves as Tinubu’s classmate.
“Two months, not one person,” he said, insisting that the absence of such testimony remained significant in the controversy surrounding the president’s educational background.
He also referred to previous instances in which photographs allegedly presented as evidence of Tinubu’s educational history were challenged by the individuals depicted in them.
Melaye alleged that a photograph of a former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, was previously passed off as Tinubu’s image from Federal Government College, Sokoto. According to him, Duke subsequently disputed the identification.
“Instead they stole Donald Duke’s picture… they didn’t know that people will know,” Melaye said, before recounting Duke’s alleged response: “na me ooo.”
The former lawmaker also referenced another photograph reportedly connected to Tinubu’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) history, claiming that the individual associated with the image had similarly challenged its use and threatened legal action.
“Now they brought another one for NYSC. The owner don come and say, I’m suing you,” Melaye said.
Melaye used the alleged episodes to question the credibility of the evidence surrounding Tinubu’s academic history and ultimately raised a broader political question about the president’s suitability to occupy Nigeria’s highest elected office.
“So how can that kind of character be the president of a country?” he asked.
The latest comments come as part of Melaye’s broader criticism of Tinubu and his administration, but the focus of the podcast snippet is specifically on the president’s educational background and the controversy surrounding documentation and photographic evidence associated with his past.
Melaye’s comments are allegations made during the interview and do not, by themselves, establish that Tinubu’s academic credentials are fraudulent. The central issue raised by the former lawmaker is whether publicly available evidence and testimonies sufficiently corroborate the president’s early educational history.