The BBC Hausa Service, one of the most trusted and widely listened-to African language services of the BBC World Service, has failed to report on the controversial report on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Chicago State University (CSU) certificate, which was published by the BBC Africa on Wednesday.
The report, titled Bola Tinubu Diploma: No Evidence Nigeria’s president forged a college record, published on the BBC Africa website on Wednesday, and claimed to have debunked the stories that questioned the authenticity of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s diploma certificate from CSU, which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as part of his academic credentials.
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The report cited the documents released by CSU last week, following a court order requested by Mr. Atiku Abubakar, who challenged his election victory at the Supreme Court. But what was more surprising to this reporter was the silence of the BBC Hausa Service on this important and sensitive issue.
According to a listener who requested anonymity and got in touch with this reporter, Imam Saleh read the BBC Hausa Service news on Thursday morning from 6.30 to 7:00 a.m., and there was no mention of or even any reference to that currently popular reporter. “If such a report was part of their important story in the English service, it would have been mentioned this morning, or a follow-up report to gauge the reaction of Nigerians would have been done on it,” he said.
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He also wondered how Fauziyya Tukur, a staff member of the BBC Hausa Service, was featured in that report, which he described as “a faux pas on the side of the reporters using the BBC Hausa Service staff aimed at misleading the nation.
“The BBC Hausa Service, which was launched in 1957, has a large and loyal audience in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, where it is regarded as a credible and reliable source of news and information
The fact that the BBC Hausa Service ignored the BBC Africa report on President Tinubu’s certificate raises questions about the editorial independence and integrity of the article published.