Nnaji: It’s All About 2027 And Tinubu

By Babatunde Obele

It was not a surprise that key members of the opposition have quickly latched on the claims that the Minister of Science Innovation, Science and Technology Uche Nnaji forged his academic certificates to hit at the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Perhaps, that has been the whole objective all along – Tinubu, not Nnaji may have been the target of these purveyors of falsehood. Yes, falsehood it is! And the fact that this false claim has been fraudulently given vent to spread far, even adorning front pages of some newspapers does not make it true.

As the Yoruba people say falsehood may take off a thousand years, but truth will overcome it in a single day. Against the deliberate misinformation of the past few days, the truth now in public domain is that the Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology is a distinguished and proud alumnus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). The Minister graduated in July 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology/Biochemistry, with Second Class (Honours) Lower Division.

This was confirmed by the University itself in a letter it issued on 21 December 2023, duly stamped and signed by Mrs. I.A.S. Onyeador for the Registrar, Dr. (Mrs.) Celine Ngozi Nnebedum. The letter, was written in response to inquiry by online news platform, People’s Gazette that had like Premium Times taken upon itself the task of probing the academic credentials of the Minister. “Mr. Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji, with registration number 1981/30725, was admitted in 1981 to study Microbiology/Biochemistry and graduated in July 1985 with a Bachelor of Science, Second Class (Honours) Lower Division,” the letter issued on the letter head of the university and properly stamped stated emphatically.

Also, UNN’s 1985 Convocation Brochure, which, I gathered, was brought out and circulated by some school mates of the Minister who were not only surprised but were taken aback by the shenanigans and lies of the past few days have been circulating in the past few days.

The Convocation Brochure had the names of the 37 students who successfully completed their course in Microbiology and were duly certified for convocation in 1985. The Minister’s name and picture was clearly reflected in the brochure as a member of the graduating class of the Department for that year.

The brochure is part of the UNN’s archives. But the good news is that the names of the classmates of the Minister are also well reflected and some of them have volunteered to start speaking to further put a lie to this deliberate misinformation in the next few days.

Furthermore, the Minister had submitted the same UNN credentials to the Senate for screening before confirmation of his nomination as a minister. Surely, the credentials were duly screened and confirmed as genuine by the DSS before Nnaji was called for screening by the senate.

Yet, we must put the role of the UNN, especially, its Vice Chancellor, Professor Simon Uchenna Ortuanya who only assumed office about two months ago in this deliberate disinformation campaign under the searchlight. Said to be a dyed-in- the- wool politician, Ortuanya was a former commissioner of education and Secretary of the State Government under the PDP administrations of Governors Sullivan Chime and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in Enugu State respectively. He was also a former Director General of South East Governor’s Forum. There are speculations that the Vice Chancellor remains a card carrying member of PDP and is planning to contest for the senate in 2027.

His ‘volte face’ on the Minster’s graduation from UNN as reflected in a letter he purportedly issued to Premium Times two years after the institution in a letter duly signed by its registrar said otherwise, seemed a confirmation of these speculations.

The fact that the Vice Chancellor also dabbled into issues related to examination and graduation records instead of the Registrar who is recognized as the custodian of such functions reflected Prof’s Ortuanya mischief in the ugly affair. What’s more, the Minister had after getting information that of attempts to tamper with or alter his academic file had filed a suit against the Vice Chancellor and the management of the UNN.

The court, presided over by by Hon. Justice H. J. Yilwa had on 22 September granted a series of protective orders, including an injunction restraining the Vice Chancellor and management of UN from tampering or continuing to tamper with the Minister’s academic records. The court also issued an order of mandamus compelling the University to release the Minister’s academic transcript as well as a directive to the supervising authorities to ensure compliance through their disciplinary powers.

But rather than obey these certified order of court, the Vice Chancellor, a lawyer decided out of what is believed to be a politically motivated malice to embark on media trial obviously aimed at embarrassing the Minister and indeed, the Tinubu’s administration.

A clear reading of the political climate in Enugu State will reveal a clear case of the Biblical voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau as the nation races towards 2027. Certainly, it was not a coincidence that the falsehood about the Minister’s academic credentials began to circulate days after the same platform behind it had indicated that Enugu’s PDP governor, Peter Mba is plotting to decamp to the ruling APC.

With the Enugu chapter of PDP in shambles as a result of infighting, the Governor had long desired to dump the party for the APC. Unfortunately, the Minister who is rightly the leader of the APC in Enugu State not just because of his present position or the fact that he was the gubernatorial candidate of the party 2023 election, but because of the role he has been playing in solidifying the party as credible platform has constituted his main stumbling block.

This is more so if its realized that the PDP and its leadership had since 1999 hold Enugu by the jugular, despite their failures to meet the yearning of the people by ensuring that the opposition parties can only function as appendages. However, in the 2023 election, the opposition parties demonstrated that the PDP is far from invincible in Enugu State. There is palpable fear in Enugu Government’s House that with his rising profile matched against failure of the Mba’s administration to deliver on its promises to the people, the unending crises in PDP, the Minister now constituted the biggest obstacle to the Governor’s bid to use the APC to return to office in 2027.

It’s very unfortunate that an otherwise noble institution with distinguished alumni who are contribution to the advancement of humanity across the globe has, courtesy of a Vice Chancellor, has become a pawn in Enugu politics. It will seem as if the Vice Chancellor has wittingly lend himself to a coordinated campaign to drag a public servant dutifully serving his country, and a distinguished alumnus on an institution he is presiding over into the mud of partisan politics for obvious political gain.

But what is also clear going by reports in the past few days was that beyond Nnaji, the opposition has seized on this falsehood to his at the President’s Tinubu’s administration as reflected in flurry of press statements by the opposition parties. These opposition political parties and so called public commentators who do not wish the Tinubu’s administration well have taken position, passed judgments and pronounced guilty verdicts despite the fact that the issue is under adjudication at a competent court. They cannot wait for pronouncement of the court on the matter because their aim is to do everything possible to discredit the Tinubu’s administration.

But Nigerians cannot be fooled. And knowing him, President Tinubu will also not be carried away or distracted by such sponsored campaign and neither should Nnaji. The Minister should also not allow the campaign of calumny to take his gaze off the task of advancing innovation, building Nigeria’s science and technology capacity, and restoring the nation’s confidence in research-driven industrial growth as he was mandated by the President.

Babatunde Obele writes from Abuja