Certificate Forgery Scandal: Obi demands prosecution as Uche Nnaji admits UNN never issued him degree

Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has called for the immediate prosecution of Uche Nnaji, President Bola Tinubu’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, following fresh revelations that he forged his academic credentials.

Mr Obi’s demand comes in the wake of a damning investigation by PREMIUM TIMES, which established that the minister submitted falsified academic and NYSC certificates to President Tinubu, the Senate, and other government bodies during his ministerial screening in 2023.

The scandal deepened last week when Mr Nnaji, in court filings, reportedly admitted that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), never issued him a degree certificate,  effectively confirming the forgery allegations that have trailed him for over two years.

Reacting in a statement on Monday, Mr Obi said the episode was symptomatic of a wider rot in Nigeria’s leadership recruitment process.

“Those who are supposed to be exemplary have become the very source of the nation’s decay,” Obi said. “When dishonesty is modelled by public officials, it corrodes the moral standards available to young Nigerians.”

He lamented that Nigeria’s electoral and governance systems allow candidates and appointees to scale through without proper scrutiny of their credentials.

“In other countries, forgery leads to immediate disqualification,” Obi said. “But in Nigeria, INEC does not verify certificates, courts dismiss criminal allegations as ‘pre-election matters,’ and even parliament looks the other way.”

He urged that ahead of the 2027 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must enforce stricter rules: all candidates and appointees should submit their certificates at least six months before elections, with details made public for verification.

Investigative trail: Two years of digging

PREMIUM TIMES had, since 2023, investigated allegations that Mr Nnaji never completed his studies at UNN, despite claiming a combined degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology.

The paper’s findings showed that the degree certificate and NYSC discharge certificate Nnaji submitted in 2023 were determined to be outright forgeries.

UNN’s Vice-Chancellor and Registrar confirmed that Nnaji did not graduate from the university, according to the report.

A letter initially issued by the university registrar in December 2023,  wrongly affirming his graduation, was later recanted, with officials admitting his name was missing from the 1985 graduation roll.

Senior university sources told PREMIUM TIMES that Nnaji’s student file “contains details up to the point where he dropped out.”

The minister’s admission in court

The decisive twist came when Mr Nnaji himself, in a verifying affidavit before Justice Hauwa Yilwa of the Federal High Court, Abuja, acknowledged that UNN never issued him a certificate.

While accusing UNN officials of being “uncooperative,” Nnaji admitted that he was “yet to collect” his degree certificate – an admission contradicted by the university’s confirmation that he never graduated.

Court documents showed that he sought injunctions to prevent UNN from “tampering” with his records and to compel the release of his transcript, a move widely seen as an attempt to shield himself from further exposure.

The lingering questions

By conceding that UNN never issued him a degree, the minister has inadvertently confirmed that the degree and NYSC certificates he tendered to Nigerian authorities were forged.

That raises critical questions:

If he did not graduate, how did he obtain the degree certificate in his possession?

How did he qualify for and obtain an NYSC discharge certificate without a valid degree?

Why did security agencies, the Senate, and the presidency overlook the discrepancies during his confirmation?

Despite repeated approaches by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Nnaji has declined to respond publicly to the allegations.

A test for Tinubu’s government

The revelations have sparked fresh outrage over the credibility of Tinubu’s cabinet appointments and the integrity of Nigeria’s public institutions.

For Mr Obi, the issue transcends Nnaji’s personal dishonesty. “When criminals and dishonest people scale through all the scrutiny layers, security, parliament, and government apparatus,  it is a double tragedy,” he warned.