01/12/2025
PUBLIC WARNING: THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT UCHE NNAJI’S FORGERY SCANDAL, AND WHY THE UNN VICE CHANCELLOR MUST NOT BE DRAGGED INTO HIS SELF-INFLICTED DISGRACE
ACJ-FAVOUR AMUKA'S DESK
*...Forgery + Perjury + False Declaration + Abuse of Public Office = Automatic Criminal Conviction, Kuje Prison has more than enough space to host him for years.*
That Uche Nnaji still roams about Nigeria’s political corridors pretending to be a statesman is an embarrassment of national proportions. The disgrace that follows him is not hearsay, not conjecture, not conspiracy, it is documented, traceable, and self-inflicted. And the Nigerian public deserves to know every detail.
The letter issued by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Prof. Ortuanya, comes on the heels of an earlier pronouncement by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), which had distanced itself from the discharge certificate purportedly belonging to the minister. The certificate in question, bearing the serial number A231309 and dated 1986, had already been flagged by the NYSC as invalid months before the latest development.
According to findings by the investigative media team, several contradictions undermine the minister’s narrative. A major point of concern is the timeline between his alleged graduation and the service year he claims to have completed. While the degree certificate he presents carries a July 1986 date, the NYSC certificate shows that he supposedly served from April 16, 1985, to May 15, 1986. This presents two major anomalies:
1. The service duration curiously spans 13 months, instead of the statutory 12-month programme.
2. More critically, the commencement date of the alleged service year predates his claimed graduation date by roughly three months, implying that he began national service before even obtaining his degree—an unprecedented occurrence in the history of NYSC since its establishment in 1970.
The irregularities deepen when examining the signatory on the certificate. At the time the minister claims to have been in service, the NYSC was headed by Col. Edet Akpan, who served as Director of the Corps between January 1984 and December 1987. However, the certificate presented by the minister is signed by Col. Animashaun Braimoh, who only assumed office later as the fifth head of the NYSC between January 1988 and December 1990, a period that does not align with the minister’s alleged service year.
Another inconsistency arises from the designation of the NYSC’s chief executive during the mid-1980s. Official records show that the head of the Corps was referred to as “Director” throughout that era. The titles “National Director” and subsequently “Director General” were adopted years later, well into the 1990s. Yet, the minister’s purported discharge certificate carries the signature of a “National Director” in 1986, long before that nomenclature was introduced.
Taken together, these discrepancies, conflicting dates, incorrect signatories, and the use of anachronistic official titles, cast serious doubt on the authenticity of the certificate and the claims surrounding it.
1. THE UNDENIABLE FACT: UCHE NNAJI SUBMITTED A FORGED DEGREE CERTIFICATE
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) has made its position unambiguously clear:
The university did NOT issue the degree certificate Nnaji paraded before the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial screening.
This is not coming from rumour merchants.
This is coming from official UNN correspondence, signed and released through proper administrative channels.
Worse still, UNN records show that:
As of 1986, Nnaji was still resitting MCB 431 (Virology)
He never passed the course
He never graduated
Therefore, he could never have legitimately obtained a 1985 degree certificate
Yet he submitted one.
That, by every legal definition, is forgery.
2. FORGERY BECAME PERJURY THE MOMENT HE SWORE AN OATH
During his ministerial screening, Nnaji did not merely submit forged documents,
he swore an oath affirming that those documents were authentic.
That is the textbook definition of:
Perjury
False declaration under oath
Criminal misrepresentation
In any country with a functioning justice system, the next place for someone who commits perjury in the Senate is Kuje Prison, not a ministerial seat.
3. THE NYSC CONFIRMED HIS “CERTIFICATE” IS ALSO SUSPICIOUS
The NYSC disowned the discharge certificate he submitted for screening.
At this point, even a blind man can see that the pattern is not coincidence,
it is deliberate fraud.
4. THE UNN VICE CHANCELLOR IS NOT THE VILLAIN, HE IS DOING HIS JOB
What is most shameful is the desperate attempt by the Nnaji camp to drag the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ortuanya, into a matter he has no hand in.
A Vice Chancellor responding to an official inquiry, especially one originating from a reputable national newsroom, is performing a constitutional, administrative responsibility.
He is the custodian of the university Senate records.
He must respond to:
FOI requests
ROI requests
Journalistic inquiries
Government panels
International verification enquiries
And any legitimate demand for academic authentication
The UNN constitution demands transparency, not secrecy.
The VC cannot, and must not, lie simply because a disgraced ex-minister wishes the truth to disappear.
5. THE PUBLIC MUST KNOW HOW NNAJI TRIED TO MANIPULATE THE SYSTEM
One of the most disturbing revelations is that:
The earlier confirmation that misled the public was NOT signed by the Registrar
It was signed by a woman who signed “on behalf of the Registrar”
The letter was sent from a personal email, not the university’s official channel
It was printed on UNN letterhead without proper authorization
This alone is a punishable administrative offence.
This is why the Registrar later issued a clean, authoritative rejoinder disowning the certificate.
Meaning:
Every “confirmation” Nnaji relies on has collapsed in the face of proper verification.
6. THE EDUCATION MINISTRY PANEL IS SITTING ON DAMNING FACTS
Reliable insiders state that the committee set up by the Ministry of Education has uncovered even more disturbing details, details so damaging that releasing them may:
Embarrass the Presidency
Raise serious questions about due diligence
And make Nigerians question the integrity of the federal appointment process
If the panel releases what it has found, it will be the final nail in the coffin for Nnaji’s political future.
7. THIS IS WHY THE TINUBU GOVERNMENT MUST DISTANCE ITSELF IMMEDIATELY
President Tinubu cannot afford this stain.
2027 is not far.
Nigeria’s diplomatic image cannot carry the weight of a ministerial forgery scandal.
Distancing the administration from Nnaji is not optional, it is survival politics.
8. UCHE NNAJI SHOULD THANK GOD THIS IS NIGERIA, IN ANY SERIOUS COUNTRY HE WOULD BE IN PRISON BY NOW
Let us be frank:
If this were the UK, US, Canada, or even South Africa, Nnaji would already be:
Arrested
Charged
Prosecuted
Stripped of privileges
And jailed
Forgery + Perjury + False Declaration + Abuse of Public Office = Automatic Criminal Conviction
But because Nigeria sometimes tolerates criminal audacity, he is still walking around, smiling, plotting political comebacks, and attacking innocent institutions.
9. PUBLIC ADVICE TO UCHE NNAJI
For his own good, and for whatever remains of his dignity,
Uche Nnaji should:
Stay away from politics
Stop dragging UNN into his self-made disgrace
Stop harassing a Vice Chancellor who only told the truth
And seriously consider removing himself from public view
Because if the law finally lands on his table, Kuje Prison has more than enough space to host him for years.
