Shortly after President Bola Tinubu picked Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji to serve on his cabinet as one of the first batch of ministerial nominations, the State Security Service sought to verify the nominee’s national service certificate with the federal institution that purportedly awarded it.
After contacting the National Youth Service Corps to authenticate the certificate presented by Mr Nnaji, the SSS was immediately informed that the document was bogus, Peoples Gazette found through records and officials familiar with the matter.
Per tradition, the SSS should have alerted the presidency and other institutions managing the nomination process, especially the Nigerian Senate, that Mr Nnaji’s certificate was fake and that he was, consequently, ineligible to be confirmed as a minister of the federal republic.
Instead, the SSS, Nigeria’s preeminent domestic intelligence outfit tasked with fortifying the integrity of security and administrative processes across all tiers of government, hushed up the forgery and allowed Mr Nnaji’s nomination to proceed, officials aware of the matter said.
On August 7, 2023, Mr Nnaji was confirmed as the minister from Enugu, alongside 44 other cabinet ministers whose nominations were unveiled by the Senate two weeks earlier on July 7.
He was subsequently assigned to the newly-created Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, where he has been tasked with overseeing Nigeria’s hi-tech transformation amidst the global race for artificial intelligence.
The SSS’ request itself was part of an expansive background check that the agency routinely conducts following a candidate’s nomination into a sensitive government position. But how Mr Nnaji enlisted agents of Nigeria’s domestic intelligence to help him cover up two probable federal infractions, the forging of a government document and the tendering thereof before the Nigerian Senate, remained unclear.
At least three ministerial nominees, Abubakar Danladi from Taraba, Nasir El-Rufai from Kaduna and Stella Okotete from Delta, were dropped during the Senate’s confirmation process. Officials said the screening process should’ve also winnowed Mr Nnaji from consideration.
For several months as The Gazette painstakingly examined Mr Nnaji’s national service certificate, the minister avoided calls, text messages and letters asking him to come clean about what transpired for the purpose of this story.
His office also rebuffed attempts to interview him in person, and two administration colleagues who tried to elicit his response on behalf of The Gazette said he showed no intention of engaging them on the matter.
Authorised signatory
Whereas Mr Nnaji’s certificate manifests the same defeating characteristics that often undercut falsified documents: chronological and calligraphic blunders, anyone not keen on its affirming features, especially lawmakers who are inclined to blow past the boring cornucopia of nominees’ credentials, could deem the document genuine at first glance.
However, once the document is further scrutinised, the minister’s forgery becomes so poorly done that it doesn’t require extra dedication to spot its duplicity, our findings showed.
Mr Nnaji distributed copies of his purported credentials to senators shortly after he was nominated. The package, obtained by The Gazette, included his WAEC certificate, degree from UNN, tax records, and filings with the Code of Conduct Bureau, among others. While there are questions about his degree certificate, it is the NYSC document that The Gazette was able to categorically determine was falsified.
The certificate has been issued to eligible Nigerian graduates since 1973 as part of reconstruction efforts the country embarked upon following a prolonged civil war that saw millions of lives lost and left the country in ruins from 1967 to 1970.
NYSC Certificate (right) issued in 1979 showing exactly one year of national service
Since the scheme began, it has been observed for one calendar year only. All certificates issued since 1974 have indicated a duration of one-year service. For instance, a fresh graduate who joined the NYSC on January 1, 1985, graduated on December 31, 1985. If enrolled on December 31, 1985, the person would have passed out on December 30, 1986.
Yet, in one manifest indicator of its sham, Mr Nnaji’s certificate showed he spent more than one year in service. It showed that the politician enrolled on April 16, 1985, and passed out on May 15, 1986.
Matching signatures on genuine NYSC certificates issued in 1984, 1985 and 1986 with identifying features obscured.
Going by the duration on Mr Nnaji’s certificate, with serial number A231309, the Enugu politician served one year and one month — or 13 months — a crucial first sign that his certificate was falsified.
Likewise, Mr Nnaji’s certificate, which was purportedly issued in 1986, carried the signature of Animashaun Braimoh, a Nigerian Army colonel who was not appointed to lead the NYSC until January 1988.
The Gazette’s extensive findings showed all certificates issued in 1986 were signed by Etuk Akpan, who was appointed to lead the NYSC from January 1984 to December 1987.
SSS collusion
The Gazette reviewed more than 50 copies of national service certificates issued between 1978 and 2008 but could not find a single copy that was slightly more or slightly below one year, even by one day. Officials said at least 5.8 million citizens have participated in the exercise since its 1973 inception, and the duration of all genuinely issued certificates was one year.
Indeed, when The Gazette reached the NYSC, officials were puzzled about the source of Mr Nnaji’s document, saying they couldn’t find a copy in their possession that carried the duration stated on Mr Nnaji’s certificate.
In a letter to The Gazette, the NYSC said Mr Nnaji had been asked to produce evidence of his participation in the youth service.
NYSC senior administrator Bona Fasakin informed The Gazette that the SSS contacted the NYSC to verify Mr Nnaji’s certificate prior to his Senate confirmation, but the agency was unable to confirm the document’s authenticity and consequently asked Mr Nnaji to cooperate with the director overseeing the verification of certificates.
“We will, therefore, forward our response to you after the certificate has been further verified,” Mrs Nnaji told The Gazette in the letter dated October 31, 2023.
Several months after the October letter, The Gazette checked in again with the NYSC two more times, first in March 2024 and again last week, to confirm whether or not Mr Nnaji had honoured the call to come forward and clarify his document. Officials said the minister ignored all invitations sent to him directly and to his aides.
The NYSC’s response corroborated the submission of sources within the SSS, who earlier assured The Gazette that top officials of the intelligence outfit did not only verify that Mr Nnaji’s certificate was fake before clearing him for Senate confirmation, but they did so with further intention to help him cover up the fraud.
“They said their duty was to clear nominees of the president and not to second-guess the judgment of the commander-in-chief,” one of the SSS agents with knowledge of how Mr Nnaji was allowed to scale confirmation with dubious documents told The Gazette. “My principals failed to recognise the reason the service usually gets asked to clear nominees for the president.”
Several Nigerian officials, including former Speaker Salisu Buhari and Senator Stella Oduah, have been ensnared in certificate scandals after being successfully screened by the SSS. The agency’s core functions include protecting presidents, vice-presidents, governors, ministers, and other statutory protectees across the country. It also tracks violent and white-collar criminals, including terror suspects, bootleggers, and counterfeiters of the national currency.
A spokesperson for the SSS promised to clarify the agency’s role in the cover-up of Mr Nnaji’s conspiracy, but failed to do so even after being shown a copy of NYSC’s position on the spurious certificate.
Officials who briefed The Gazette about the agency’s culpability did so under anonymity to escape retribution for disclosing sensitive internal affairs of the agency. They did not specifically accuse Director-General Yusuf Bichi as ordering the cover-up, but said he was briefed and that he signed off on all cleared nominees.
Blunder, blunder everywhere
The Gazette also observed that Mr Nnaji’s NYSC failed to correspond with his degree certificate from the University of Nigeria. The minister’s UNN certificate, issued in December 1985, said he graduated in July 1985.
This suggests that the minister mobilised for national service before officially graduating from the university. NYSC regulations require a candidate to submit evidence of graduation from a tertiary institution to be eligible for admission into the service.
Mr Nnaji’s claim that he joined the NYSC in April 1985, even though his university certificate was not issued until December 1985, was dismissed by officials as dubious and further evidence of his forgery of the youth service document. It is illegal to falsify public documents and also criminal to tender them.
The Gazette’s efforts to confirm whether or not Mr Nnaji graduated from UNN did not yield a dispositive outcome after several months.
The Gazette searched through the UNN senate’s list for 1985 graduates but could not find Mr Nnaji’s name. Mr Nnaji’s first name, Geoffrey, was spelt incorrectly as Geoffery on his UNN certificate, even though it was spelt correctly on all other credentials he submitted to the Nigerian Senate, including the bogus NYSC certificate.
However, UNN’s registrar Ngozi Nnebedum said in a letter to The Gazette that “Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji with registration number 1981/30725 was admitted in 1981 to study Microbiology/Biochemistry in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.”
“Mr Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji graduated from the University of Nigeria in July 1985 with Bachelor of Science in Microbiology/Biochemistry, Second Class (Hons.) Lower Division,” the letter, dated December 21, 2023, but received by The Gazette on January 12, 2024, added.
The Gazette shared the UNN certificate that Mr Nnaji submitted to the Nigerian Senate with Mrs Nnebedum, but for several months she insisted her office was unable to find the school’s copy of the document on file and, therefore, could not speak to its authenticity.
She also did not clarify to The Gazette why Mr Nnaji’s name was not on the university senate’s list of graduates.
Moreover, the registrar couldn’t explain why the minister’s name was misspelt on the certificate or the reason for chronological discrepancy in the date he purportedly started his national service and the date he graduated from UNN.
At least two people who attended UNN within the years Mr Nnaji said he was there told The Gazette they couldn’t remember graduating with him.
One of them, who disclaimed his own memory of events at the time as hazy, said Mr Nnaji seemed to have been one of his classmates between 1981 and 1982 but that the minister didn’t graduate with his cohort. He declined to comment on the record because of his ties to a foundation supported by the minister.
“Only successful graduates are mobilised for national service throughout the country,” NYSC spokesman Eddy Megwa told The Gazette. “The requirements for mobilisation are strictly based on the evidence of completion of tertiary education.”
Curious guber submission
According to an affidavit filed by his mother, Monica Nnenna Nnaji, in Abuja on May 16, 2016, Mr Nnaji was born on June 16, 1963, in Nkanu-West Local Government Area.
In the biodata he submitted to the Nigerian Senate, he claimed to have obtained his high school certificate in 1980. He purportedly worked at Jos Breweries in 1986 and later established several ventures in oil and gas.
He said he joined politics in the 1990s and was once a senator-elect on the platform of Alliance for Democracy in Enugu in 1999. He has remained politically active ever since, holding several party positions.
In 2023, he was the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress for Enugu governorship, but his candidacy was suppressed by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party. Peter Mbah of the PDP won the election.
Curiously, when Mr Nnaji submitted his credentials to INEC for the governorship election, he listed high school as his highest educational qualification, saying he finished at St. Patrick’s College, Emene, Enugu. It was unclear why he failed to inform INEC that he attended UNN, one of Nigeria’s foremost learning institutions run by the federal government.
Mr Nnaji avoided all efforts to get him on the record for this story. An unidentified individual reached out to The Gazette, saying they were asked by the minister to clarify that he was a respected businessman and philanthropist. The individual failed to address specific questions about the minister’s credentials.
A spokesperson for the president did not return a request for comments about whether officials had discovered Mr Nnaji’s fraud and its implications for the administration, which has repeatedly expressed its commitment to probity in public service.
