The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), has once more disowned the Bachelor of Science diploma certificate in the possession of the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Uche Nnaji.
In a fresh letter to PREMIUM TIMES signed by UNN’s Senior Deputy Registrar (Records), F.C. Achiuwa, on behalf of the registrar, the college reiterated that the minister didn’t full his research on the establishment and was not issued a certificate.
This newest letter aligns with an preliminary letter to PREMIUM TIMES from the college’s Vice-Chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, who additionally famous that though Mr Nnaji was admitted to the establishment in 1981, he didn’t full his research and was by no means awarded a level.
Mr Ortuanya’s letter, dated 2 October 2025, was in response to this newspaper’s Freedom of Information request submitted to the college in which we sought clarifications on allegations of certificate forgery towards the minister.
What we discovered in our investigation
A painstaking two-year investigation published by PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday revealed that Mr Nnaji cast the credentials he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate throughout his ministerial affirmation in 2023.
The report particularly uncovered how the minister cast his diploma and NYSC certificates.
Allegations of certificate forgery have dogged Mr Nnaji since July 2023, when President Tinubu named him among the many first batch of 28 ministerial nominees from 25 states forwarded to the Senate as a part of the president’s preliminary cupboard listing, two months after taking workplace on 29 May 2023.
Critics have lengthy insisted that Mr Nnaji didn’t full his college schooling and that each the bachelor’s diploma and NYSC certificate he introduced to President Tinubu, in addition to to the workplaces of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the State Security Service, and the Senate, have been cast.
The findings of PREMIUM TIMES’ intensive examination of the paperwork have been damning and conclusive: each the diploma certificate and the NYSC discharge certificate in the minister’s possession are outright forgeries.
This newspaper reported on Sunday that the minister has admitted that UNN by no means issued him a level certificate.
Many Nigerians have expressed outrage over the minister’s certificate forgery.
On Monday, Mr Nnaji was absent from a press convention his workplace referred to as to deal with the matter. His aides, nevertheless, appeared on his behalf throughout which they made unsubstantiated claims, together with the declare the minister certainly graduated from UNN.
PREMIUM TIMES later revealed paperwork exhibiting that on the time Mr Nnaji claimed to have graduated from UNN and purportedly proceeded to take part in the obligatory nationwide youth service, he was nonetheless exchanging correspondences with the establishment on how he may re-sit a failed terminal course examination.
Meanwhile, Mr Ortuanya and Mrs Achiuwa’s separate however related responses to PREMIUM TIMES’ enquiry, which got here a number of months after the NYSC issued an analogous verdict, is the excessive level of this newspaper’s two-year painstaking investigation into Mr Nnaji’s diploma and NYSC certificates.
We first made an FoI request to the college on 1 February 2024. But officers failed to reply to our enquiry regardless of a number of reminders and follow-up visits to the establishment by our reporter.
During one such go to, a registry employees member compelled our reporter to pay a N15,000 processing payment. We did, however nonetheless obtained no response to our letter.
On 2 October this yr, we determined to courier a reminder to the college, making the identical request and attaching a duplicate of the Bachelor of Science diploma the minister submitted to the Senate throughout his affirmation listening to on 1 August 2023.
Given that we didn’t get a response from our earlier FOI request to the college’s registrar, we determined to submit the latest request to each the registrar and the vice-chancellor of the college.
The college’s reply to our enquiry contradicts an earlier response to the People’s Gazette newspaper on the matter. On 21 December 2023, Celine Nnebedum, the college registrar, responded to the newspaper’s enquiry, saying Mr Nnaji graduated from the establishment in July 1985.
The official has since recanted, telling the Public Complaints Commission in May this yr that the college searched its commencement information for the 1985 session however couldn’t discover Mr Nnaji’s title on them.
Before now, Mr Nnaji didn’t reply to a number of calls and textual content messages in addition to an enquiry PREMIUM TIMES despatched to him on 8 January 2024, which was stamped “received” by his workplace at 1 p.m. on 18 January 2024.
Fresh letter
In the fresh letter dated 6 October 2025, Mrs Achiuwa corroborated Mr Ortuanya’s account that though Mr Nnaji was admitted into the college in 1981, he neither graduated nor was issued any certificate.
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“We wish to inform the Premium Times that although he (Nnaji) was admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1981, we have searched through the University of Nigeria graduation record for 1985 session and we could not find Mr Nnaji Geoffrey Uchechukwu’s name,” she mentioned.
The official burdened that “there is no indication” that the diploma certificate which the minister possesses “was issued by the University of Nigeria.”
