By Editorial Staff 
- Science Minister Uche Nnaji accused of certificate forgery.
- UNN confirms no record of his graduation
- Registrar retracts claim that he graduated.
- NYSC certificate found to be fake and inconsistent.
Nigeria’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji, has been caught in a certificate scandal, a special investigation has revealed, describing him as a certificate forger while efforts by the minister to stop UNN from releasing his academic records have been rejected by an Abuja High Court.
The foremost investigative media organisation revealed that the minister’s claim of graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Enugu State, was false, as the institution disclosed that there is no record of Uche Nnaji’s graduation.
The minister had attached a Bachelor of Science degree to the documents he submitted to the Upper Legislative Chamber during his confirmation hearing on August 1, 2023.
The Premium Times Special Investigation stated that the minister was offered admission by UNN in 1981 with matriculation number 1981/30725.
But the report quoted the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Simon U. Ortuanya, as saying, “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.”
Ortuanya, who was appointed Vice-Chancellor of UNN on August 2, 2025, questioned how someone who did not complete his undergraduate studies could have been issued a certificate.
Doubts about Mr Nnaji’s UNN certificate began in July 2023 after he made the first batch of ministerial nominees submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu.
His political foes had alleged that the minister did not complete his Bachelor’s degree programme at the university and that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate he was parading was forged.
The investigative media house stated that earlier requests made to the university in 2024 were intentionally subverted by some officials, even after they were made to pay a processing fee of ₦15,000.
Meanwhile, an earlier investigation by another Nigerian online newspaper, Gazette, on December 21, 2023, showed that UNN Registrar, Celine Nnebedum, had intentionally lied to the newspaper’s enquiry by confirming that the Science Minister graduated from the institution in July 1985.
She later retracted her claim in May 2025 during her appearance before the Public Complaints Commission, stating that a thorough search of the 1985 graduation records showed that the minister did not graduate from the institution.
How Discrepancies in Nnaji’s NYSC Certificate Expose His Lies
The report, which detailed how discrepancies in Nnaji’s NYSC certificate exposed him, stated that Nnaji had claimed to have served in Jos with an NYSC certificate dated May 15, 1986, bearing the signature of Colonel Animashaun Braimoh as the Chief Executive Officer of the Corps.
Col. Braimoh served as NYSC boss between January 1988 and December 1990, meaning he could not have signed an NYSC certificate before his appointment as the CEO of the Corps.
Colonel Edet Akpan was CEO of the NYSC between January 1984 and December 1987, which falls within the period the minister claimed to have served.
“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,” the report revealed.
The investigators stated that they “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.’”
Investigations at the NYSC headquarters also revealed that the NYSC certificate claimed by Uche Nnaji, the Minister of Science and Technology, is fake and forged.
Similarly, unlike other political office holders whose Wikipedia pages are filled with academic achievements, such as the institutions they attended, Nnaji’s page contains no information about his academic background. This may be due to the controversy surrounding his certificates.
It was also learn that UNN withdrew his studentship after he failed several courses and did not “attend several rewrite opportunities granted to him” by the university.
He is not the first politician to be involved in certificate forgery. Nigeria’s former House of Representatives Salisu Buhari once claimed to have graduated from the University of Toronto, which was found to be false, which to his resignation on July 23, 1999.
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Opeyemi Quadri