Minister Nnaji: Is Tinubu’s Cabinet An Oluwole United?

 By Ugoji Egbujo

Atiku says the federal cabinet is an assembly of serial forgers, money launderers, election bandits and identity thieves. While it can’t be described as a total rogues’ gallery, it harbours far too many shady figures, granting too many reprobates access to the pulpits of power.

Tinubu, the acclaimed talent hunter, wanted a minister of innovation, science and technology and chose Nnaji. That is telling. Of all the brains in Igboland, of the constellation of Igbo intellects, Tinubu chose an Nnaji to lead innovation. Perpetuating the pattern. The third-class students march into politics to govern the first-class students, their footsteps echoing their hollowness in the corridors of power. Had Tinubu placed country above cronies, summoning scholars and inventors to ignite science and technology, he would have spared himself and the country this festering mess. And spared Nnaji this life-bending humiliation.

But Tinubu chose political loyalty over leadership and chose an alleged serial forger. The dregs find their way to the top and smother the cream. It’s not juju. The University of Nigeria Nsukka , UNN , which Nnaji claims as alma mater has disowned the degree certificate Nnaji carries about. And as receipts of his alleged forgeries flooded the internet, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology technically threw in the towel and went home. The science of his graduation and the technology that conjured it has to be studied. What has now gone viral and made the virulent scam reverberate is the letter Nnaji purportedly wrote in 1986 asking to be allowed to rewrite a core course in virology which Nnaji didn’t write before graduating the previous year in 1985. The miracle of Nnaji’s graduation has baffled the gods. Could that be the innovation that Tinubu saw in him?

But Nnaji hasn’t admitted guilt. Yet the NYSC is emphatic that Nnaji forged his discharge certificate. Who can blame the honorable minister? How can one mourn a sin one views as mere misfortune, unmasked by cruel chance? Especially when kindred spirits of moral bankruptcy linger, frolicking in the dim corners of the federal cabinet. It’s difficult to feel guilty under such a circumstance. Nnaji has confided in the public that he resigned because his political opponents were blackmailing him. That’s right. He couldn’t stand that distraction devouring Tinubu’s fragile shine. However much gloss Nnaji applies, that resignation now appears a velvet euphemism for a shove into the shadows.

Indeed, Nnaji as Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology was the leader of the APC in Enugu State. Rumours had been rife that Gov. Peter Mbah had approached Tinubu to indicate an interest in jumping out of the sinking PDP into the ruling APC. To defect without injuries, Mbah had to get Nnaji to make room for him. But Nnaji mounted a roadblock and wouldn’t budge for a political refugee usurper seeking to reap where he didn’t sow. So Mbah must have deemed Nnaji’s recalcitrance as a threat to his political survival and commissioned political excavators to dig for skeletons.

Many Nnaji’s dispirited supporters blame this crisis for the unfortunate resurrection of a certificate scandal the minister had neatly buried two years ago. Mbah’s men, however, have wrung their hands, asking Nnaji to look inside his ‘shokoto’ rather than Sokoto for the source of his troubles because 2027 was already causing a cold war in the presidency, a war in which the gladiators might not be taking prisoners. Because UNN had once written a letter to confirm that Nnaji graduated from the university, some of Nnaji’s aides who are now without jobs are wondering why a bird with such a soft academic head like Nnaji couldn’t resist the temptation to jump into a pecking fight. Perhaps Nnaji had banked on the allies who helped him bury the skeletons, believing they had buried them beyond reach.

Nnaji has gone home, but the mess stinks. It stinks to the heavens partly because of the murky history of Tinubu and the fog around the schools he attended. Around him, academic scandals ring differently . Opposition leaders say they are not surprised the president under whose nose this rot is festering is unperturbed. They blame the lack of outrage on guilty conscience. They insist that Tinubu’s cabinet is filled with impostors. And that just like Nnaji the entire government is vulnerable to blackmail. Particularly foreign blackmail. The position of the opposition is apposite. This has grave national security implications. A cabinet of impostors makes the state terribly weak.

A president elevates a man with an Oluwole degree; and of all ministries under the sun, makes him minister of science and technology. That can’t be a coincidence. It’s not mere chance. The academic credentials of some of Tinubu’s ministers are so wretched the public won’t like them published on an international forum. The moral credentials are even worse. I feel for Nnaji. He was exceptionally unlucky. It’s possible that the same Oluwole factory that manufactured his also manufactured for a few of his colleagues. You never know. Perhaps had Nnaji known Tinubu would be at such great ease with mediocrity’s embrace,  he wouldn’t have bothered with the Oluwole degree thing to secure a ministerial appointment. The bar is beyond low.

The president chose a charlatan to be minister. When  murmurs of a scandal rose, they were waved away like pesky flies. The DSS, guardians of the gate, who can detect ghosts, vetted the man and vouched for him. The man had either fooled them or taken care of them. The former scenario would be more honorable, atleast  ineptitude can coexist with a clean conscience. The Senate confirmed the nomination. And now it’s not ready to exercise any oversight functions over the DSS vetting process to discover how water entered ‘Opi Ugboguru’. Okay, that’s confidential, national security I suppose. A mantra for the myopic.

The Nnaji mess is a pervasive institutional rot. But who cares . The UNN, an elite university, has its reputation in the mud. It has in two years issued two contradictory statements on the same degree certificate. The purported initial confirmation from UNN’s registry now looks like the job of a consummate con artist burrowed in the citadel. Yet the police don’t want to get involved. And the EFCC, the only anticorruption agency with real fangs perhaps, doesn’t think this is an economic or cyber crime of consequence like naira mutilation. So what about the federal Attorney General? He isn’t bothered. Not piqued watching Nnaji’s aides go from TV station to TV station to grate the sensibilities of the public, announcing that Nnaji is a victim of political blackmail by the vice chancellor of the UNN which is owned by the Tinubu-led federal government. Why is Tinubu’s cabinet not outraged?

Despite our reputation as a yahoo yahoo haven, the world must be startled. It’s no secret folks buy federal appointments. Now ministers get into the cabinet with fake degrees. And if fake degrees can slip through presidential vetting, then what are Nigerian degrees really worth? The world must be waiting to see whether Nnaji was a case of a few bad eggs, a syndicate of crooks or a systemic dysfunction. But they might be waiting in vain. Because nobody is in a hurry to investigate the persons and institutions embroiled in this scandal to redeem the image of the country. Why is Tinubu’s government so chummy with fraud perpetrated by its lackeys.

Minister Betta Edu was suspended from the cabinet almost two years ago. The scandal involved an alleged embezzlement of 585 million naira of public funds. After two years of investigation, the EFCC has neither exonerated nor charged her. The matter has been tidily swept under the carpets woven of wilful forgetfulness. Now Nnaji has resigned. The government appears unwilling to investigate the matter, punish offenders and mop the mess. If it acts it will be perfunctory, performative to sweep it into Betta Edu’s. The message Tinubu emits is that crimes committed by his friends and members of his cabinet will not be punishable. The opposition says corruption is blossoming in the country under Tinubu’s watch because Tinubu lacks the moral authority to confront it. As in, a huge pot can’t go about calling brotherly kettles black. Perhaps the man has a conscience.

However, such indulgent gaze toward graft erodes a government’s soul. It shatters the fragile trust in promised renewal. It portrays Nigeria in caricature upon the international canvas. A sin-soaked and floundering nation. The outcome is international disrespect, poverty, and retardation. So why isn’t Tinubu moved? Obasanjo prosecuted Speaker Salisu Buhari of the Toronto fame . Though he got away with a fine and pardon as a slap on the wrist 20 years ago,  more recent offenders ought to face higher hurdles , back-breaking sanctions as a general message against yahoo yahoo mentality .

Nigeria deserves better. Transparent vetting, zero-tolerance probes, and leaders who prioritize scholarship and detest fraud. The Bible warns of permissiveness and impunity. Nigeria can’t become a political Sodom and Gomorrah.

*Dr. Egbujo is a commentator on public issues