President Bola Tinubu has accepted the resignation of Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Geoffrey Nnaji, following allegations that he forged his university and NYSC certificates.
The resignation was confirmed on Tuesday in a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
“He resigned today in a letter thanking the President for allowing him to serve Nigeria. Nnaji said he has been a target of blackmail by political opponents. President Tinubu thanked him for his service and wished him well in his future endeavours,” Onanuga said.
Sources in the Presidency told The PUNCH that Tinubu asked Nnaji to resign honourably instead of being publicly dismissed. The decision, they said, was finalised after a meeting with the President and his advisers at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday evening.
“The embattled minister is going to resign. Instead of the President firing him, he has asked him to just resign honourably,” one source revealed.
The development followed an investigative report by Premium Times alleging that Nnaji submitted forged certificates to President Tinubu and the Senate during his 2023 ministerial screening. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), reportedly denied awarding him a degree, saying that though he was admitted in 1981, he did not complete his studies.
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In a Freedom of Information response, UNN Vice Chancellor, Prof. Simon Ortuanya, confirmed that Nnaji was not a graduate of the institution. This contradicted an earlier letter from the university’s registrar, Celine Nnebedum, who initially confirmed his graduation but later recanted in a 2025 statement to the Public Complaints Commission.
The Premium Times report also cited a court affidavit in which Nnaji admitted that UNN never issued him a degree certificate and that he had “never collected one.”
Reacting to the report, Nnaji denied the allegations and blamed his political rivals for trying to discredit him. At a press conference in Abuja on Monday, his spokesperson, Dr. Robert Ngwu, said the university was “playing politics” with his academic records.
Nnaji insisted he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology/Biochemistry in 1985 and displayed a UNN graduation brochure showing his name as “Nnaji Uchenna G.”
“It is increasingly clear that this entire episode is not about education or integrity; it is about political desperation, disguised as academic inquiry. The timing, the sources, and the false documents all point to a coordinated campaign to drag a reputable public servant into the mud of partisan politics,” Nnaji said.
However, a senior government source said the case had become “an embarrassment” to the administration.
Nnaji’s exit makes him the eighth minister to leave President Tinubu’s cabinet since its inauguration in August 2023. The President had previously reshuffled his team in October 2024, sacking five ministers and reassigning 10 others in what was described as a move to improve government performance.