A panel set up by the Federal government to investigate allegations that the immediate-past Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, forged his University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) degree certificate has returned a demning verdict..
Reports said the investigative panel discovered that indeed, the former minister forged his university certificate.
The seven-member panel was constituted on November 23, 2025 in response to Nnaji’s petition to the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, following media report in October last year, which suggested that the then-minister forged his degree and NYSC certificates.
The panel submitted its detailed report to the education minister in December 2025.
In the petition dated October 14, 2025, Nnaji alleged unethical disclosure, document tampering, and political manipulation of his academic records by senior officials of UNN.
He also accused the UNN Vice-Chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, and a former acting Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Oguejiofor Ujam, of “issuing forged or unauthorised correspondence, improperly accessing his academic file, and facilitating media publications that misrepresented his academic history.”
The probe panel led by the Director of the University Education Department in the ministry, Rakiya Gambo Ilyasu, said it adopted “documentary review, interviews, verification, and technical audit as its methodological approach” to the investigation.
It said during the investigation, members physically visited UNN, engaged with the institution’s officials – including its Vice-Chancellor and former acting Vice-Chancellor – and reviewed necessary documents and the university records.
The panel said that during the investigation, it also accessed and inspected Nnaji’s academic files and internal correspondence – including the 2023 and 2025 letters issued by UNN.
It also examined UNN’s historic academic records, registry movement logs, Senate lists, convocation archives, electronic access logs, and other relevant documentation.
In the Federal government panel report, investigators said they conducted “a thorough review of the Senate-approved graduation list of 1985 and the personal student file” of Nnaji and found, among others, that his name was not in the graduation list in the 1985 set.
The panel said it obtained “several correspondences” dated from November 8, 1985 to May 19, 1986 between Nnaji and the Registry Department of the university regarding his failed course MCB 431 – Virology, which were documented in the former minister’s academic file.
It added that Nnaji, in his handwritten correspondence dated May 19, 1986 and titled “Application to take course, 431AB in September,” explained that he could not write the exam scheduled for April 21, 1986 due to ill health, and attached a supporting medical report.
“The panel was unable to find any record of him (Nnaji) having taken the failed course,” the report further read.
The panel then wondered how Nnaji obtained the “purported certificate of graduation” dated July 1985, which he submitted to President Bola Tinubu for appointment and to the National Assembly for his ministerial confirmation.