How whistleblower helped us to uncover Uche Nnaji’s certificate forgery
The Editor-in-Chief and Chief Operating Officer of Premium Times, Musikilu Mojeed, has narrated how a whistleblower helped the newspaper to uncover the certificate forgery by the Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji.
Mr Mojeed spoke on Tuesday night when he appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
A painstaking two-year investigation published by PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday revealed that Mr Nnaji forged his degree and NYSC certificates, which he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation in 2023.
The politician has now resigned from his position as Nigeria’s minister of innovation, science, and technology.
How we got wind of the scandal
Speaking on the TV programme, Mr Mojeed said an anonymous whistleblower contacted PREMIUM TIMES through the newspaper’s newsroom email, alerting it to discrepancies in Mr Nnaji’s certificates as well as urging an investigation.
“The whistleblower, he or she, was confident that if we did a diligent investigation, we would be able to uncover something shocking. And we took up the challenge, and then we started working on it. In 2023, we started working on it,” he stated.
The PREMIUM TIMES editor said the newspaper’s management assigned the story to reporters upon receipt of the tip-off from the whistleblower.
“We had no battle with the minister. We didn’t know him. But for us, this is not the first time.
“Our strength is investigation. Everybody knows our newsroom for that. And when a matter is brought before us, we investigate,” he said.
“Sometimes, we find things that are indicting; sometimes, we don’t. But it’s our job as journalists, especially as required of us by the constitution, to hold power to account, which is what we have done here.”
Mr Mojeed then detailed how the newspaper carried out the investigation, sending FOI requests to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), where Mr Nnaji attended and the NYSC authorities, and reviewing several documents, and unsuccessfully seeking clarifications from Mr Nnaji.
He recalled that, during the process, UNN initially failed to respond to the first FOI request submitted on 1 February 2024. He said he later understood that the failure was caused by interested parties determined to frustrate the investigation.
“We couldn’t make progress with the investigation. Until we learned that in August, there is a new leadership at the university. We decided to try again. Initially, we wrote to just the registrar, but in our second attempt, we wrote to both the vice-chancellor and the registrar separately. We decided this time to courier the letter to each of them separately, which was what we did,” Mr Mojeed narrated.
“Luckily for us, the vice chancellor responded. And just today, the registrar just responded, affirming the same thing that the vice-chancellor told us. So, that was how we worked on that.”
Premium Times to sue Nnaji’s spokesperson
Earlier on Tuesday, Robert Ngwu, the spokesperson to Mr Nnaji, falsely accused PREMIUM TIMES of collecting N100 million bribe from the Enugu State Government to do the report.
But reacting, Mr Mojeed said the newspaper would sue Mr Ngwu for the allegations, insisting the media organisation would not allow anyone to malign it.
“We are not a newspaper that you can unduly malign. We’ve built our integrity for close to 15 years. We’ve done a lot of great stories, and no one has ever accused us of that.
“People know us for that. Our practice is built solely on integrity, and not even a Robert Ngwu or Uche Nnaji can destroy it,” he said, pointing out that the newspaper’s lawyers were reviewing Mr Ngwu’s comments.
“He (Ngwu) will bring his evidence and tell us how the money was given and how it was received.”
Background
Allegations of certificate forgery had 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 had 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 then-minister had admitted that UNN never issued him a degree certificate.
Many Nigerians have expressed outrage over the then-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 that the then-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 NYSC, he was still exchanging correspondence with the institution on how he could re-sit a failed terminal course examination.
Following the findings of the investigation, the politician resigned his appointment on Tuesday evening.