Fresh proof has emerged confirming that the tutorial credentials with which the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, secured his appointment in 2023 couldn’t have been real.
A PREMIUM TIMES investigative report revealed on Saturday revealed that whereas Mr Nnaji gained admission into UNN in 1981 to review microbiology/biochemistry, he dropped out with out finishing his research.
Despite this, Mr Nnaji emerged on the political scene up to now years claiming to have graduated from the establishment with a second-class honour, decrease division, in July 1985.
Documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES now present that on the time Mr Nnaji claimed to have graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and purportedly proceeded to take part within the necessary nationwide youth service, he was nonetheless exchanging correspondences with the establishment on how he may re-sit a failed terminal course examination.
The data present that Mr Nnaji failed a virology course — MCB 431AB — and subsequently made two unsuccessful makes an attempt to re-sit the examination.
The college’s registrar, by means of a letter dated 8 November 1985, knowledgeable him that he failed the course within the spherical of September 1985 supplementary examinations, and suggested him on the steps he wanted to have a re-sit. This letter was despatched to him about 4 months after he claimed to have accomplished his research and graduated from the college.
“I regret to inform you that the result of the 1984/85 September Supplementary examination results show that you have not made the required grade in the 1985 September supplementary examination in the following course — MCB 431 A -Virology,” the registrar’s letter learn.
“If you wish to take the June 1986 examination as is provided by the university of Nigeria academic regulations, you are required to notify the registrar through your head of department with a proof of payment of examination fee of N4 (four naira).”
Responding by means of a 3 January 1986 letter, Mr Nnaji formally notified the registrar of his intention to retake the course, stating that he had paid the required N4 price. Yet, he failed to seem for the rescheduled examination.
So, in one other letter dated 19 May 1986 and addressed to the registrar, he attributed his absence from the examination to sick well being and requested one other alternative to take a seat the course in the course of the September 1986 supplementary examinations. A replica of the letter seen by PREMIUM TIMES indicated that his medical report was hooked up to assist his claim.
“Due to ill health, I was unable to take the outstanding terminal course MCB 431 AB-virology which took place on the 21st of April 1986,” he wrote on the time. “I, therefore, pray that you grant me, Sir, the opportunity to do so during the supplementary examinations.”
These correspondences punctured Mr Nnaji’s claim that he graduated from UNN in July 1985.
More than 10 months after he claimed to have graduated, as of May 1986, he was nonetheless scrambling to re-sit an impressive essential course examination.
A 2 October 2025 letter from the college’s vice-chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, in response to PREMIUM TIMES’ freedom of knowledge request, confirmed that Mr Nnaji didn’t return to finish the excellent course.
Other discrepancies
PREMIUM TIMES’ two-year investigation, revealed Saturday, already raised elementary inconsistencies in Mr Nnaji’s educational and repair data.
For instance, the notification of outcome he tendered claims he graduated in July 1985 with a second class (decrease division), whereas his purported National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificates signifies he commenced service in April 1985 — months earlier than he purportedly accomplished his research.
Both paperwork stand in stark distinction to the correspondences he exchanged with UNN’s registrar between 1985 and 1986, displaying he had but to move the excellent terminal virology course essential to his graduation from the college.
The contradictions point out that Mr Nnaji couldn’t have obtained his bachelor’s diploma from the UNN or mobilised for the NYSC scheme on the time he claimed.
The revelations increase questions over how he secured clearance from the State Security Service (SSS) and the Senate to be appointed minister in 2023 within the face of evident discrepancies in his credentials.
The investigation
Allegations of certificates forgery have dogged Mr Nnaji since July 2023, when President Bola 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 record, 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 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates 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, had been cast.
A painstaking two-year investigation published by PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday certainly confirmed that Mr Nnaji cast the credentials.
This newspaper reported on Sunday that the minister has admitted that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) by no means issued him a level certificates.
Many Nigerians have expressed outrage over the minister’s cast certificates scandal.
On Monday, Mr Nnaji was absent from a press convention his workplace referred to as to handle the matter.