Certificate scandal: Minister’s resignation not enough! By Tonnie Iredia

The uproar generated by the allegation that Uche Nnaji, Nigeria’s immediate past Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology forged both his degree and NYSC certificates has simmered considerably following the Minister’s resignation. But why he resigned is not clear. Did he resign because he was weighed down by the enormity of the scandal? Could it be that he wanted to save the government from further bad press or was he forced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quit? This unclear end to the scandal is one of the many reasons why the resignation is not enough.

If Nnaji was not guilty as some of his supporters forcefully argued, it is unfair to sacrifice him over some purportedly concocted allegations. Considering that it was not just a fake degree certificate but also a bogus NYSC certificate, the allegation became one too many. On this score, the former Minister cannot blame those who concluded that he has a propensity to be blame worthy. A spokesperson for Nnaji had argued that there was a PDP faction within the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN who ganged up against his principal. If so, did the same political group permeate the NYSC to conjure the wrong official to sign Nnaji’s bogus discharge certificate?

It is therefore not enough for the government toallow Nnaji to resign thereby putting the case behind us simply because the noise it generated had died down. We need to get to the bottom of the matter in view of the frequency of fake credentials among political office holders in Nigeria. Why was it so easy for example to forge a certificate issued by a long-standing frontline Nigerian University? As one analyst told me the other day, there is probably a cartel at the UNN that can manipulate the system. The analyst came to the conclusion because he got to know of a story of how a friend’s certificate was hidden by the cartel in anticipation of a bribe. As this is not our topic today, I can’t say much on it, but if the new Vice Chancellor is interested, I will willingly provide the details.

But before then, we ought to ask the authorities at the UNN to heed the call of former Minister Nnaji to release his transcript. Of course, an academic transcript is a better reflection of a student’s performance. So, let’s make it public at the instance of the owner. If that is done, two revelations are likely to emerge. First, the transcript might show whetheror not Nnaji failed any course. There must be something the accused knows that the rest of us don’t know for him to boldly call for the transcript. The other issue that may come to light could be that those who manipulated the records may have successfully perfected the case of transcript. If this is the case, it is possible that the cartel we referred to may be quite active at the UNN. The latter must therefore not allow the story to end abruptly.

It is simplistic for Nigerians to continue to attribute every forgery concerning fake results to the famous ‘Oluwole’ group. Instead, every Nigerian university needs to tighten its system so as to dissuade students past and present from altering results and scores. The NYSC must similarly design a system which makes it virtually impossible to forge its documents. The point to be made is that if such societal institutions take time off to occasionally review their documents, they will come across many forgeries. If this is institutionalized, not many people will continue to look towards forging documents that become public only after such documents are tested in other organizations.

The next step is to put an end to the tendency to sweep under the carpet,forgeries by people in the corridors of power. To sack or advise an accused person who appears guilty to resign from office is not one of the sanctions provided by law for forgeries and it is not in the interest of government to try to create the culture. We are in a democracy which is premised on the rule of law. All allegations should be allowed to pass through the due process of law. Accordingly, former Minister Nnaji must be prosecuted and jailed for as long as 21 years if found guilty. People like him should not be allowed to create the ‘animal farm’ culture in which certain persons are allowed to operate above the law.

At the same time, we call on President Tinubu to direct the prosecution of all wrong doers in government. As of today, no one knows the exact fate of Betta Edu, former Minister of humanitarian and poverty alleviation who was alleged to have in conjunction with other officials in her sector squandered hundreds of millions of naira.  She was later suspended following public outrage over the scandal. Are we to assume that her suspension and subsequent decision of government not to bring her back into cabinet is sufficient evidence of guilt? If so, why has she been protected from prosecution and if not so, why will she not return to office? In short, government should not be seen to be condoning the wrong doing of a former national woman leader of the ruling party who was further elevated into the federal executive council asa Minister.

The situation in the judiciary has been far more irritating. A year ago, the National Judicial Council NJC sacked two heads of court over age falsification. According to the Council, this followed an investigation that the then Chief Judge of Imo State, Justice, Chukwuemeka Chikeka and the Grand Kadi of Yobe, Babagana Mahdi were guilty. The only punishment imposed was compulsory retirement of Chikeka and a refund of all salaries and allowances he received for four extra years. Mahdi’s case was even more astonishing as he had illegally stayed in office for as long as 12 years. For all of that, Mahdi and his co-accused are now left to enjoy freedom as well as pension and gratuity.

It is unfair for government to allow our numerous judges who are upright to be smeared by a few deviants. Proactive steps must be taken to remove from our judiciary, criminals who can never deliver fair and just decisions. Instead of doing that, the retirement age of judges was recently raised ostensibly as an answer to frequent age falsifications in our judiciary. The present administration owes us the obligation of cleaning up the services because it was during the last 10 years of the APC government that the idea of ignoring many wrongs became rampant. Indeed, people see the trend as being in line with the party’s declaration that those who joined the party had their sins forgiven.

To change the situation, all allegations must be thoroughly investigated and any person found guilty is punished. The Nnaji affair must be the last criminal matter that is handled politically. The dictum of everyone is equal before the law is a cardinal feature of the rule of law and our government must stop experimenting with the law. We cannot continue to name and shame other segments of society such as young Nigerian students found guilty of forging JAMB scores while we remain quiet about dubious activities of top office holders in the belief that after a while we shall all forget about their inexplicable transgressions. 

The case of Nnaji is really embarrassing because he didn’t need a degree plus NYSC certificate to become a Minister. Only a school certificate would have sufficed. Why then would he forge certificates he didn’t need? He was probably caught in this web only because of the ego of politicians to be greater than real. It is hoped that other issues that would arise from his fall will not be ignored. Also not to be ignored is our corrupt leadership recruitment process. The UNN, the security agencies who cleared Nnaji, the ‘bow and go’ Senate which usually handles with levity the weighty constitutional mandate of clearing nominees for sensitive positions should all be investigated. 

It is however certain that Enugu politicians have more than what we know. As a result, lets await revelations that the other side will unravel shortly because it is clear that there is a fight for supremacy in the heartland of the Southeast in view of a new political alignment that is fast surfacing in the area. Every allegation pushed forth from now must be duly investigated because we are at the critical junction of ‘u do me, i do u’ where many secrets hidden on the basis of political exigency will find their way out. Something clearly tells me; we are yet to hear the last on the subject.

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