Science Minister Uche Nnaji Resigns Over Certificate Scandal
Nnaji has been in the eye of the storm lately with some critics claiming that his UNN and NYSC certificates were forged. The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, has resigned from President Bola Tinubu’s government. The Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed this in a statement on Tuesday.
Prior to his resignation, there has been controversy trailing his certificate said to be obtained from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State as well as the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate. While he claimed to have graduated from UNN in 1975, report has it that the citadel of learning could not authenticate that Nnaji scaled through his academic sojourn.
According to a painstaking two-year investigation by PREMIUM TIMES, Nnaji allegedly forged the credentials he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation.In July 2023 when President Tinubu named him among the first batch of 28 ministerial nominees from 25 states forwarded to the Senate, allegations of certificate forgery have dogged Nnaji since.
Some quarters have long insisted that Nnaji did not complete his university education and that both the bachelor’s degree and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate he presented to President Tinubu, as well as to the offices of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the State Security Service (SSS), and the Senate, were forged. The online newspaper claimed that the the Vice-Chancellor of UNN, Simon Ortuanya, stated that although Nnaji was admitted to the institution in 1981, he did not complete his studies and was never awarded a degree.
The platform added that authorities at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) also confirmed that the certificate of national service being paraded by Nnaji was strange to it and could not be authenticated.
