A civil society organisation (CSO), Centre for Leadership Legacy International (Centre LLI), has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to uphold the highest integrity in his government by ensuring that any act capable of bringing his government into disrepute is not entertained.
In a statement signed by the Spokesman of the Centre, Davies Isaiah Ijele, the group urged President Tinubu to look deeply into the serial allegations of certificate forgery against his Minister of Interior, Hon Olubumi Tunji-Ojo.
According to the statement, these allegations have become too weighty to be ignored, saying if not properly handled, can constitute a burden to the integrity rating or credibility of the government.
The group noted that Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo’s declaration in his official profile presented before the National Assembly for his 2019 House of Representatives run (INEC/EC9) listed his education as including a first degree from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and postgraduate study at London Metropolitan University, and that the
degree from OAU has no date or year of graduation, while the master’s degree
from London university has 2006 as year of graduation.
Secondly, the group alleged that during his 2023 Senate screening for a ministerial appointment, Tunji-Ojo presented a NYSC discharge certificate as part of the vetting paperwork of which the date was 2023 with explanation that he had been first mobilised in 2006 but absconded, then remobilised later (and the discharge certificate was printed/issued in February 2023). That NYSC clarification is widely reported in the press.
The group therefore concluded that the interior minister of Nigeria, handling the internal security for the country, has a degree certificate from Obafemi Awolowo University with no record of year of graduation, and has master’s degree from London Metropolitan University in 2006 while mobilised for NYSC service in Nigeria in the same 2006, hence his NYSC couldn’t be completed for him to be remobilised in 2019 while already elected as a House of Representative member in 2019, and his NYSC certificate couldn’t be printed in 2023 for presentation as his highest qualification for ministerial screening in 2023.
The group urged President Tinubu to wade into these discrepancies in Tunji-Ojo educational controversies in the interest of the integrity and accountability of his government.