Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on the presidency to clarify President Bola Tinubu’s recent reference to Belarusian businessman Alex Zingman as a former classmate at Chicago State University (CSU), citing inconsistencies in the timeline and the businessman’s background.

The request was made in a statement released Tuesday by Atiku’s media office.

The issue arose after Tinubu, during the launch of his administration’s agricultural mechanisation programme in Abuja on Monday, credited Belarus as a key international partner in the procurement of 2,000 tractors.

According to a statement by presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu paid special tribute to Zingman for facilitating the collaboration, describing him as “a former classmate at the University of Chicago.”

Atiku’s camp said the claim has added confusion rather than clarity to longstanding questions about the president’s academic history. The statement noted that Zingman, who is Belarusian, was reportedly born in 1966. Tinubu has stated that he graduated from CSU in 1979, raising questions about how Zingman could have been a fellow student if he were only 13 years old at the time.

“It is important for the president to explain how someone born in 1966 could have graduated from an American university in 1979,” the statement said. “Was this classmate from the same cohort or from a different decade altogether?”

The statement also referenced media reports linking Zingman to controversial business dealings in Africa, including allegations of arms trafficking and financial misconduct. Atiku’s office said such associations require closer scrutiny, given Tinubu’s public praise of Zingman.

“The president owes Nigerians a full explanation,” the statement continued. “If the individual mentioned is the same Alex Zingman with a controversial profile, the public should be informed of the nature and basis of their relationship.”

The statement also repeated broader questions about Tinubu’s academic background, including the authenticity of documents he submitted and the absence of verifiable classmates from his supposed educational history.

It urged the presidency to offer clear, documented answers, saying the office of the president should reflect transparency and integrity.

The statement read in part: “A basic review of publicly available information immediately calls the President’s claim into question. Mr. Alex Zingman, a Belarusian businessman whose name features prominently in controversial dealings across Africa — including allegations of arms trafficking and financial improprieties in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo — is listed in various reports as being born in 1966. By the year 1979, when President Tinubu claims to have graduated from CSU, Mr. Zingman would have been only 13 years old.

“Are we now to believe that the Guinness Book of Records missed the story of a 13-year-old Belarusian prodigy graduating from an American university alongside Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

“Even more troubling is the President’s casual association with a man whose international reputation is mired in scandal.

“This leads us to ask, with the solemn weight of patriotism and the urgency of truth:

Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why a man born in 1966 is being paraded as your classmate who graduated in 1979. Were you taught in the same classroom or in different decades?

“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know if the Alex Zingman of global infamy — the arms-linked tycoon — shares the same seat in your memories or only in a script of fiction.

“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why the mystery around your academic record deepens with every attempt to clarify it. Who truly walked the halls of Chicago State University with you?

“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why, since you claim to have presented a certificate from Government College, Lagos to gain entry into Richard Daley College in 1973, no classmate from that institution has ever spoken of sharing a desk with you.

“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know how a school founded in 1972 could issue you a certificate dated 1970—unless you were a lone prophet of a school yet unborn.

“Mr. President, Nigerians deserve to know why you have not proudly unveiled a single verifiable classmate from your supposed years in Government College, Lagos or Government College, Ibadan or Chicago State University, the way other leaders do with ease and pride.

“Mr. President, your oath of office binds you not just to protect our nation but to honour its truth. The Presidency is not a sanctuary for secrets — it is a platform for integrity. And as such, Nigerians await not tales of Alexes from distant lands but proof, clarity, and the simple dignity of facts.”