Monday October 6, 2025
By TheNewsDESK |
Pressure is mounting on the minister of science, technology and innovation, Uche Nnaji, to resign from his cabinet position over an alleged certificate forgery.
Two prominent Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Transparency International Nigeria, have called on Minister Uche Nnaji, who is involved in the certificate scandal, to resign and apologise to the nation.
The leader of the CSOs, Comrade Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said in an interview with LEADERSHIP that politicians do not need to acquire degrees by hook or by crook, as they can hold any position with a school certificate, as provided for in the constitution.
Rafsanjani observed that the minister has not resigned because he is close to the president.
He, however, insisted that leaders must lead by example.
“Well, I think the issue is that if you lie in your certificate, whether it is a degree or not, whether it is an asset declaration or not, I think the only thing is that if you lie and it is exposed, you need simply to resign because you cannot be promoting lies and fraud. What leadership are you providing? What are you presiding over if you are found to be involved in a fraudulent or lying situation?
“Now, the onus is on the man, now that the matter is public, to resign and apologise to the nation quickly. Secondly, the president cannot sit down and watch people who clearly promote lies, deception, manipulation, and fraud in the name of party or solidarity.
“There are several ministers, or rather several public officials, who are facing serious integrity challenges because of their past and what they have done. Some have been accused of corruption. Some have been charged with similar certificate scandals. Others have been accused of many things.
“If you want to provide quality leadership and want citizens to accept, follow, and respect you, you cannot have people with damaged reputations and integrity problems,” he said.
“Recently, we encountered another issue. One of the president’s singers claimed to have obtained a degree from a so-called European university, and they later distanced themselves from that claim,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which controls the government Nnaji serves as minister, has yet to say anything on the matter. At the time of this report, the party’s national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, had yet to respond to questions directed to him on the matter.