Minister Tasked With Innovating For Nigeria Admits To Having Fake Degree, Bows Out After Spending 25 Months In Office

For 25 months, he served as Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, and part of his duties and responsibilities is to create or implement new ideas, but Mr Geoffrey Nnaji has resigned from his position after admitting to being a fake degree holder.

He found himself in a scandal, got overwhelmed by it and called it quit.

Mr Geoffrey Nnaji was accused of presenting a fabricated academic qualification precisely, he was said to have faked a degree, ‘if gold rusts, what shall the iron do?’ you would say.

Nnaji, who became a member of the Federal Executive Council in August 2023, dropped his letter of  resignation on Tuesday while expressing appreciation to President Bola Tinubu for the opportunity given him to serve the country albeit with a counterfeit degree.

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga confirmed Nnaji’s resignation on Tuesday.

‘President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has accepted the resignation of Geoffrey Uche Nnaji, the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, following some allegations against him. President Tinubu appointed Nnaji in August 2023.

He resigned today in a letter thanking the President for allowing him to serve Nigeria. Nnaji said he has been a target of blackmail by political opponents. President Tinubu thanked him for his service and wished him well in future endeavours’ he said.

Recall that Nnaji’s nomination as a minister was a baptism of fire as media reports had questioned the authenticity of the Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology he claimed to have obtained from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka but he was able to subdue the threat until May this year when a letter from the UNN Registrar to the Public Complaints Commission noted that there was no record that the university issued a degree certificate to the former minister in 1985. 

The final blow hit him on October 6, 2025, when the  Federal High Court, Abuja declined to grant order  seeking to restrain UNN, the National Universities Commission (NUC), and the Senate from releasing his academic records to journalists and investigators-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079,  08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you