2027: Despite forgery scandal, ex-minister Uche Nnaji emerges PDP governorship candidate

Mr Nnaji is pushing to become the governor of Enugu State in 2027 despite being under investigation for alleged certificate forgery.

Despite a certificate forgery scandal on his neck, a former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, has emerged as the 2027 Enugu State’s governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

His candidacy, however, is of the faction loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

Mr Nnaji polled 7,424 votes to defeat another aspirant, Samson Nnamani, who scored 600 votes during the PDP governorship primary election held in Enugu on Monday.

The Chairperson of Enugu’s PDP governorship election committee, Austin Nwachukwu, conducted the exercise.

Recall that a two-year painstaking investigation published by PREMIUM TIMES in October 2025 uncovered how the then-minister forged his degree and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates, which he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation.

He had resigned from the position as minister three days after this newspaper published the investigation.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the former minister quietly moved to the PDP from the APC, under which he unsuccessfully contested the 2023 governorship election in Enugu State.

Mr Nnaji is pushing to be governor of Enugu in 2027 despite being under investigation for alleged certificate forgery. He is being investigated by the

Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported in February that the ICPC began an investigation into Mr Nnaji’s forgery scandal.

Insiders had told this newspaper that the former minister could be prosecuted if the investigation shows that he truly forged his credentials.

Meanwhile, in March, this newspaper also exclusively reported that an investigative panel set up by Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, found that Mr Nnaji indeed forged his degree and NYSC certificates.

Earlier this month, a civil society organisation, Defence for Democracy, criticised Mr Wike-backed PDP faction for screening and clearing Mr Nnaji for the party’s governorship primaries in Enugu State.

Acceptance speech

In his acceptance speech after the PDP primary, Mr Nnaji promised that if elected governor in 2027, his administration would lessen what he termed “sufferings” of Enugu residents by ensuring that they are not overburdened under the guise of taxes.

“I give this victory to the glory of God and our Enugu people, who have been oppressed in the last three years and being overburdened with excessive, obnoxious taxes.

“Landlords are paying through their nose, hoteliers are crying, commercial motorcyclists are out of existence, and even people hawking water pay tax.

“These are the people that we should be giving money to. The government should make provision to pay the less privileged. And that is the fulcrum of this struggle,” he claimed.

“The struggle to recover Enugu State, the struggle to rebuild Enugu State and the struggle to industrialise Enugu State, so that we will arrest youth restiveness. We will build industries to give our people jobs.”

One-term promise

Mr Nnaji restated his earlier promise to serve only one term of four years if elected governor of Enugu in 2027, assuring that he could improve the living conditions of Enugu residents within that time.

In Nigeria, elected presidents and governors are constitutionally entitled to a four-year tenure and are also qualified to seek reelection for a second and final term.

Background

In October 2023, PREMIUM TIMES began investigating Mr Nnaji’s academic records.

The then-minister had submitted a degree and NYSC certificates to President Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation in 2023.

He claimed he obtained a degree certificate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), where he purportedly graduated in 1985.

Apparently disturbed by the scrutiny, Mr Nnaji filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja to block both UNN and its vice-chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, a professor, from releasing his academic records.

Apart from the UNN and its vice-chancellor, the minister of education, the National Universities Commission, the university’s registrar, a former UNN Acting Vice-Chancellor, Oguejiofor Ujam, and the Senate of the university were listed as defendants in the suit.

However, the politician, through his legal team, recently applied for an out-of-court settlement.

Before the then-minister could obtain an injunction from the court, Mr Ortuanya had responded to PREMIUM TIMES’ Freedom of Information (FOI) letter, confirming that Mr Nnaji had forged his UNN degree certificate.

The UNN registrar would shortly thereafter corroborate Mr Ortuanya’s position, stating that although Mr Nnaji was admitted to the university in 1981, he neither graduated nor received any certificate.

NYSC authorities, in response to a separate FOI letter from PREMIUM TIMES, had disowned the discharge certificate in possession of the then-minister.

Mr Nnaji resigned from his position as minister three days after this newspaper published the investigation exposing how he forged his degree and NYSC certificates.

Many Nigerians had called for Mr Nnaji’s prosecution, maintaining that his resignation was inadequate given his violations of various Nigerian laws, including the Criminal Code Act.

Three months ago, a legal practitioner, Liborous Oshoma, criticised the Nigerian government for failing to prosecute Mr Nnaji over the certificate forgery scandal, maintaining that people like the former minister “should be prosecuted and banned from holding public office to serve as a deterrent to others.”