Again, UNN disowns Minister Uche Nnaji’s certificate in fresh letter to Premium Times
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), has again disowned the Bachelor of Science degree 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 university reiterated that the minister did not complete his studies at the institution and was not issued a certificate.
This latest letter aligns with an initial letter to PREMIUM TIMES from the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, who also noted that although Mr Nnaji was admitted to the institution in 1981, he did not complete his studies and was never awarded a degree.
Mr Ortuanya’s letter, dated 2 October 2025, was in response to this newspaper’s Freedom of Information request submitted to the university in which we sought clarifications on allegations of certificate forgery against the minister.
What we found in our investigation
A painstaking two-year investigation published by PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday revealed that Mr Nnaji forged the credentials he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation in 2023.
The report specifically exposed how the minister forged his degree and NYSC certificates.
Allegations of certificate forgery have dogged Mr Nnaji since July 2023, when President Tinubu named him among the first batch of 28 ministerial nominees from 25 states forwarded to the Senate as part of the president’s initial cabinet list, two months after taking office on 29 May 2023.
Critics have long insisted that Mr Nnaji did not complete his university education and that both the bachelor’s degree and NYSC certificate he presented to President Tinubu, as well as to the offices of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the State Security Service, and the Senate, were forged.
The findings of PREMIUM TIMES’ extensive examination of the documents were damning and conclusive: both the degree 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 never issued him a degree certificate.
Many Nigerians have expressed outrage over the minister’s certificate forgery.
On Monday, Mr Nnaji was absent from a press conference his office called to address the matter. His aides, however, appeared on his behalf during which they made unsubstantiated claims, including the claim the minister indeed graduated from UNN.
PREMIUM TIMES later published documents showing that at the time Mr Nnaji claimed to have graduated from UNN and purportedly proceeded to participate in the mandatory national youth service, he was still exchanging correspondences with the institution on how he could re-sit a failed terminal course examination.
Meanwhile, Mr Ortuanya and Mrs Achiuwa’s separate but similar responses to PREMIUM TIMES’ 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.
Given that we did not get a response from our previous FOI request to the university’s registrar, we decided to submit the recent request to both the registrar and the vice-chancellor of the university.
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.
Before now, Mr Nnaji did not respond to multiple calls and text messages as well as an enquiry PREMIUM TIMES sent to him on 8 January 2024, which was stamped “received” by his office 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 although Mr Nnaji was admitted into the university 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 said.
The official stressed that “there is no indication” that the degree certificate which the minister possesses “was issued by the University of Nigeria.”
