Pressure Mounts On Tinubu’s Minister To Resign Over Certificate Forgery

Sunnex Egbu

4 hours ago

Pressure is mounting on the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Uche Nnaji, to resign from the Federal Executive Council following allegations of certificate forgery.

Naijaonpoint understands that Civil Society Organisations have urged the embattled minister to step aside and apologise to Nigerians to preserve the integrity of public office.

Speaking in an interview with Leadership, the leader of the CSOs, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said the scandal was unnecessary, noting that the Nigerian constitution only requires a school certificate to qualify for public office.

Rafsanjani alleged that Nnaji had remained in office despite the controversy because of his closeness to the President.

He, however, insisted that ethical standards must not be compromised.

Rafsanjani said, “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.

“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.”