Nigeria’s Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Geoffrey Uche Nnaji, has resigned after an embarrassing certificate forgery scandal.
His resignation letter to President Bola Tinubu dated 7 October, 2025, was accepted according to the Presidential Advisor on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on 9 October, 2025.
Uche Nnaji was in President Tinubu’s first list of 28 ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and approval in August, 2023.
During the Senate screening, he claimed to have a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in July, 1985.
He presented a questionable degree certificate from the university to support his claim.
However, his National Youth Service Corps certificate, also forged, had a date of April, 1985.
The NYSC is a compulsory national youth service which is supposed to be completed one year after graduation.
Despite this anomaly, he was cleared as minister and was assigned the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister portfolio.
Some newspapers, especially the Premium Times, started investigating Uche Nnaji.
A petition to the Public Complaints Commission demanded answers from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
On 13 May, 2025, the university registrar, Celine Nnebedum, in a letter to the commission said there is no evidence of the minister’s name in the list of graduates of the institution.
Premium Times in a Freedom of Information request to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, demanded clarification.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Simon Ortuanya, in a reply dated 2 October, 2025, said Uche Nnaji was admitted in 1981, but did not graduate from the university.
The Senior Deputy Registrar (Records), F. C. Achiuwa, on 6 October, 2025, also replied that there is no evidence that Uche Nnaji graduated from the university.
Further investigation showed that the minister failed a course on Virology and applied to the university for a chance to resit the examination in 1986.
On 6 October, 2025, the minister sought and failed to obtain a court injunction stopping the university from releasing his academic records to journalists.
Faced with these revelations and public outcry, Uche Nnaji had no option than to resign.
The certificate scandal is seen as a big embarrassment to Nigeria, a country in search of a quantum leap into technological development.
