A major scandal has surfaced around President Bola Tinubu’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Uche Nnaji, after both the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) publicly disowned the academic and service certificates he has been flaunting.
UNN, in an official letter, declared that although Nnaji was admitted in 1981, he never graduated and therefore “DID NOT and consequently, COULD NOT have been issued” a degree certificate in 1985.
“We are unable to confirm that Mr Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji, the current Minister of Science and Technology, graduated from the University of Nigeria in July 1985, as there are no records of his completion of study in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka,” Vice-Chancellor Prof. Simon Ortuanya wrote in response to an inquiry made by Premium Times
The NYSC also dismissed the certificate Nnaji presented as fake, exposing glaring anomalies that it bore the signature of a director who assumed office two years later, carried a title that didn’t exist in 1986, and used a numbering format inconsistent with NYSC certificates of the 1980s.
The bombshell revelations confirm long-standing allegations that Nnaji’s credentials were forged.
Records show he repeatedly failed key courses, was advised to withdraw, and even wrote in 1986 begging to retake Virology, a request that was denied.
His name was missing from the official list of graduates at the 1985 convocation.
Despite the scandal, Nnaji boldly told senators during his screening in August 2023 that he graduated from UNN and served in Jos, claims televised live across Nigeria.
Efforts to obtain his response have been ignored, leaving the embattled minister cornered by accusations of academic fraud and certificate forgery.
With both UNN and NYSC washing their hands off his documents, the big question now is: how did Nnaji rise to the corridors of power with credentials that never existed?
