The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Uche Nnaji, is embroiled in a certificate scandal, barely two years after he submitted his Bachelor of Science degree and NYSC discharge certificate for screening.
A long-term investigation by PREMIUM TIMES has established that both documents are fake.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), has confirmed that Nnaji did not graduate from the institution and has disowned the B.Sc. certificate he presented.
Similarly, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) stated that the certificate of national service he is parading is “strange to it and could not be authenticated.”
PREMIUM TIMES had launched this investigation by forwarding copies of the documents to the NYSC headquarters for verification.
Persecondnews recalls that President Bola Tinubu had nominated Nnaji among the first batch of 28 ministerial nominees from 25 states forwarded to the Senate for screening as Mr Tinubu began to form his cabinet.
Just two months after assuming office on May 29, 2023, the Minister, Uche Nnaji, became the subject of certificate forgery allegations.
The academic and service certificates he presented to the President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Department of State Services, and the Nigerian Senate were all suspected to be counterfeit (a fake, which in Lagos is often termed “Oluwole”).
The investigation into Mr. Nnaji’s credentials began on October 23, 2023, following an alert from a whistleblower regarding suspected discrepancies.
Responding to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Prof. Simon U. Ortuanya, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), confirmed that Mr. Nnaji was admitted in 1981 but never completed his studies and was never awarded a degree.
It stated: “We refer to your letter dated 29 September 2025 in respect of the above subject matter,” Mr Ortuanya, a professor, wrote in his 2 October 2025 letter to this newspaper. We can confirm that Mr Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji, with Matriculation Number 1981/30725, was admitted by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1981.
“From every available records and information from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, we are unable to confirm that Mr Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji, the current Minister of Science and Technology, graduated from the University of Nigeria in July 1985, as there are no records of his completion of study in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
“Flowing from above, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka DID NOT and consequently, COULD NOT have issued the purported certificate, or at all, in July 1985 to Mr Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji, the current Minister of Science and Technology. This conclusion is also in consonance with an earlier letter dated May 13, 2025, ref. No, RUN/SR/R/V, issued by the University to the Public Complaints Commission in respect of the same subject matter (copy attached).”
Mr Ortuanya’s response to enquiry, which came several months after the NYSC issued a similar verdict, is the high point of this newspaper’s two-year painstaking investigation into Mr Nnaji’s degree and NYSC certificates.
We first made an FoI request to the university on 1 February 2024. But officials failed to respond to our enquiry despite several reminders and follow-up visits to the institution by our reporter. During one such visit, a registry staff member compelled our reporter to pay a N15,000 processing fee. We did, but still received no response to our letter.
On 2 October this year, we decided to courier a reminder to the university, making the same request and attaching a copy of the Bachelor of Science degree the minister submitted to the Senate during his confirmation hearing on 1 August 2023.
It was the recent letter to the institution that triggered the response from Mr Ortuanya, who was appointed vice chancellor of the university only on 2 August 2025.
The university’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 university registrar, responded to the newspaper’s enquiry, saying Mr Nnaji graduated from the institution in July 1985.
The official has since recanted, telling the Public Complaints Commission in May this year that the university searched its graduation records for the 1985 session but could not find Mr Nnaji’s name on them.
However, the latest information provided by Mr Ortuanya and Mrs Nnebedum to us and the Public Complaints Commission, respectively, aligns with the findings of our two-year investigation on the matter.
The outcome of our two-year investigation is damning. Not only is Mr Nnaji a barefaced liar (telling lawmakers during his ministerial screening that he graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1985 and that he did his National Youth Service Corp scheme in Jos in 1986), but he is also a serial forger, who manufactured two key credentials with which he has gained career, business and political advantages for decades.
It was also discovered that the purported NYSC certificate, dated 15 May 1986, bore the signature of Animashaun Braimoh, the army colonel who served as the fifth CEO of the NYSC between January 1988 and December 1990.
It is impossible that he signed Mr Nnaji’s certificate of national service on 15 May 1986, eighteen months before his appointment to that office. The head of the NYSC at the time the politician claimed he served was then-Colonel Edet Akpan, who held the position between January 1984 and December 1987.
Another glaring discrepancy in Mr Nnaji’s NYSC certificate was the titular designation of the corps’ CEO, who purportedly signed the document. From the inception of the NYSC and at least until the early 1990s, the head of the agency was known as “Director”.
For some years in the 1990s, the CEO of the corps became known as “National Director” and later as “Director General”, a designation still in use to date. However, Mr Nnaji has a certificate signed by a “National Director” in 1986, several years before that designation was introduced at the NYSC.
We reviewed at least 25 certificates issued by the NYSC between July 1980 and October 1990. All were signed by “Director”. Only Mr Nnaji’s was endorsed by “National Director”.
Our extensive review of NYSC certificates, from inception to at least October 1990, revealed that the six-digit numberings are devoid of alphabetic characters.
For instance, the certificate issued to Lateef Fagbemi, the current Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, in 1986, is numbered 323213, while that of Abubakar Badaru (the incumbent Minister of Defence), also issued in 1986, has 299355 as its identification number.
Mr Nnaji claimed that the NYSC issued him a certificate number A231309 in 1986, whereas the practice of adding alphabets to certificate numbers for national service did not begin until the 1990s.
Additionally, Mr Nnaji’s certificate indicates that he served in Plateau State between 16 April 1985 and 15 May 1986. We found that claim to be false because corps members statutorily serve for 12 months, not 13 as indicated by the minister’s forged certificate.
On the surface, Mr Nnaji’s degree certificate appeared genuine. We compared it with the version issued by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to a former Labour Minister, Chris Ngige, who graduated from the institution in June 1979. Apart from his first name being misspelt as “Geoffery” instead of “Geofffrey”, the certificate ticked all the right boxes on genuineness.
Those familiar with his case said the university declined to grant his request. A copy of the Order of Proceedings of the 20th Convocation Ceremony of the university was obtained which contains the names of students who graduated in 1985. Mr Nnaji’s name was missing from the list.
Nnaji has yet to respond to the enquiry sent to him on January 8, 2024, which was stamped “Received” by his office at 1 p.m. on 18 January 2024.
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