Did the President misremember? The businessman he named as a schoolmate was a 13-year old in 1979
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Alex Zingman, a businessman whom President Bola Tinubu claimed he lived close to in Chicago, USA, was a 13-year-old in 1979, the year Tinubu claimed to have graduated.@fijnigeria scoured the internet for Zingman’s biography and found a 2021 publication that had his date of…
— ‘Fisayo Soyombo (@fisayosoyombo) June 24, 2025
Alex Zingman, a businessman whom President Bola Tinubu claimed he lived close to in Chicago, USA, was a 13-year-old in 1979, the year Tinubu claimed to have graduated, FIJ has gathered.
Now 58, Zingman was in Abuja on Monday where the 73-year-old president launched 2,000 tractors and other farm implements as part of Nigeria’s bilateral deal with Belarus.
“Alex Zingman. We were together at the Chicago State University,” Tinubu said at the event.
“To all of you, Alex was my very good neighbour and he went to the same school with me in Chicago.
“Never did we dream that I would be in this position as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that Alex will be a successful businessman from Belarus to bring about a very successful collaboration and bilateral relationship that would promote economic prosperity for the future of our two countries.
“I believe our university will be very proud that we are doing this here today.”
Here, the president made two claims: that he was Zingman’s neighbour, and that they both attended the same university in Chicago. Tinubu, however, did not say they attended at the same time.
FIJ scoured the internet for Zingman’s biography and found a 2021 publication that had his date of birth pegged at November 26, 1966, meaning he will be 59 in November.
Although controversial, Tinubu insists he was born on March 29, 1952, some 14 years before Zingman. This means that at about the time the president says he attended Chicago State University, Illinois, USA, Zingman would have been a very young teenager.
FINDING ZINGMAN
Public searches on Zingman contain records of his activities with Zimbabwe and several other countries, but there is little about his childhood and history.
FIJ traced corruption allegations linked to his name, and found that he arrived the USA in the 1980s with his parents, at least one year after Tinubu allegedly graduated from university in Chicago. His father found work as a computer specialist.
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