EDITORIAL: Why Certificate Forger Uche Nnaji Must Be Prosecuted Now

Weighed down by the heavy moral burden of the certificate forgery allegation levelled against him, politician and businessman, Uche Nnaji, last Tuesday resigned his position as Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology.

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In his resignation letter to President Bola Tinubu, he claimed that he was “a target of blackmail by political opponents.”

But Mr Nnaji was being economical with the truth. The fact, as now irrefutably established, is that he forged two certificates: one, a BSc degree in Microbiology/Biochemistry from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), purportedly awarded him in 1985, even though he never completed his studies there. And another, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate dated 1986. Both forged documents were presented to the President for his ministerial appointment.

The State Security Service (SSS) and the Senate ostensibly vetted these credentials before confirming him as “fit and proper” to hold office as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

However, this newspaper’s two-year investigation punctured that deception earlier this month, following the unequivocal response from the Vice-Chancellor of UNN, Professor Simon Ortuanya, via a letter dated 2 October 2025, to a PREMIUM TIMES enquiry on the authenticity of Mr Nnaji’s degree.

Corroborating the VC’s position, another senior university official stated categorically: “The truth of the matter is that he never graduated from here. His file is intact. It contains details up to the point where he dropped out.”

Mr Nnaji, in effect, shot himself in the foot when he later admitted (after a series of evasions) that the university never awarded him the degree. His admission came in court papers he filed against the university and five others, in a desperate attempt to conceal his crime. The case, now before Justice Hauwa Yilwa of the Federal High Court, Abuja, shows that Mr Nnaji even sought an ex parte order to restrain the university from “tampering with” his academic records.

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Having admitted the forgery, law enforcement agencies must not delay his prosecution in line with Section 463 of the Criminal Code Act, which classifies forgery as a criminal offence. The law becomes even more punitive when false documents are presented under oath. Mr Nnaji’s resignation from office, we dare say, is not enough. Our collective moral health as a nation is what now stands on trial.

The Tinubu administration inflicted a great moral injury on itself by not sacking Mr Nnaji when his fraud became evident as far back as 13 May 2025, following the Registrar of UNN, Cecilia Nnebedum’s letter to the Public Complaints Commission, which clearly stated that his name was missing from the university’s roll of 1985 graduates. That the government allowed this dishonest and reprobate character to remain in office five months after this revelation is deeply troubling.

The Registrar’s earlier letter to Peoples Gazette in 2023, which curiously confirmed Mr Nnaji’s graduation, was later recanted in May 2025. A senior university source attributed the earlier letter either to “the handiwork of unscrupulous elements in the Records Unit who may have colluded with interested parties” or to an honest administrative blunder. Either way, the university owes itself — and the public — a duty to investigate and sanction those responsible to preserve its institutional integrity.

It is regrettable that the culture of fraud and deception, endemic in Nigerian society, has also entrenched itself in public office. Even more revolting, however, is the official lethargy and complicity with which such crimes are handled.

In September 2018, for instance, Kemi Adeosun, then Minister of Finance under the Buhari administration, resigned after it was revealed that she presented a forged NYSC exemption certificate to the SSS and Senate during her screening. Similarly, in 2019, Governor-elect David Lyon of Bayelsa State lost his mandate after the Supreme Court found that his deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, had submitted forged certificates to the electoral body.

The trail of such infamy stretches back to Salisu Buhari, the first Speaker of the House of Representatives in this Fourth Republic, who in 1999 was exposed for forging a University of Toronto degree and a birth certificate. On the latter, he increased his age from 29 to 36 to circumvent Section 65 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which stipulates a minimum age of 30 for membership of the House of Representatives.

Overwhelmed by public outrage, Mr Buhari resigned on 23 July 1999 and publicly apologised to Nigerians. It was TheNews Magazine, under the editorship of Bayo Onanuga — now Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Tinubu — that exposed his fraud in a cover story aptly titled “The Face of a Liar.”

We are persuaded that Mr Nnaji and others caught in similar scandals represent only a fraction of a broader rot in the system. The more fundamental question lies in the failure of security and legislative screening mechanisms that are supposed to protect the integrity of high public office.

ALSO READ: Uche Nnaji’s Certificate Forgery: What Nigerian laws say

The SSS and the Senate, in particular, must be called to account. Their perfunctory, performative “vetting” of nominees, without thorough verification of documents, is a national embarrassment. It is an unacceptable abdication of responsibility that should compel immediate institutional reform.

Nigeria cannot continue to normalise deceit at the highest levels of governance. Each unpunished forgery erodes public trust, undermines the merit system, and tells honest citizens that integrity no longer counts.

The country will err grievously again if there are no consequences for Mr Nnaji’s forgery. The ministry he led — Innovation, Science and Technology — should, in any serious nation, be at the heart of knowledge production, technological growth, and economic transformation, especially in this age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Allowing this sordid saga to fade without full accountability, without tracing how and with whose help Mr Nnaji procured and used his forged certificates, will further tarnish not just this government, but Nigeria’s moral standing as a nation.