By: Daure David
The recent certificate forgery scandal involving Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology has once again thrust the issue of integrity in public office into national discourse. Allegations swirling around the minister’s academic credentials specifically his purported degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) have triggered public outrage and calls for his immediate removal from office.
Civil society groups, opposition figures, and concerned citizens have urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act swiftly and decisively by relieving the minister of his duties pending a full investigation. Their argument is simple: credibility and character must matter in governance.
But amid these calls, a familiar question looms large can a government that has not fully addressed the controversies surrounding its own leader’s academic records genuinely claim the moral authority to act?
Many Nigerians have not forgotten that President Tinubu, the minister’s boss and leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has faced persistent and unresolved questions regarding his own academic history. Over the years, discrepancies have trailed his WAEC certificate, NYSC participation, and university records. Court documents in Nigeria and abroad, as well as investigative reports, have highlighted contradictions that remain unanswered to this day.
For a country that claims to be fighting corruption and upholding transparency, this trend of looking the other way when it suits the powerful undermines public trust and breeds cynicism.
“The same government that has not produced a clear, certified record of the President’s educational journey cannot selectively crucify a minister accused of similar wrongdoing. This is what Nigerians are questioning the hypocrisy, the double standards,” said an Abuja-based legal analyst who preferred not to be named.
Indeed, in any functioning democracy, public office holders are expected to meet basic standards of honesty, including the authenticity of their educational qualifications. Where questions arise, transparency demands full disclosure not silence, spin, or scapegoating.
If the minister in question is guilty, then justice must take its course. But the process must be consistent and free from political bias. A government cannot cherry-pick accountability.
Critics argue that what Nigeria faces is not just a string of certificate scandals but a deeper crisis of leadership ethics. When citizens are jailed for forgery, but ministers and presidents can rule under clouds of suspicion, the message is clear: the law is not blind it wears partisan glasses.
The ruling APC and the Tinubu-led administration have an opportunity to prove that no one is above scrutiny. But to do so, the president himself must come clean and fully address the lingering controversies surrounding his own educational records.
Until then, any talk of integrity will continue to ring hollow and the Nigerian people will have every right to ask: Who really should be sacked?
