The Politics of Enugu State got messy yesterday when a Nigerian media released a misleading headline news report purporting that the Minister of Science and Technology , a Guber Candidate in Enugu State in 2023 has admitted to not receiving any degree certificate from University of Nigeria.
This obviously isn’t correct and appears to leave behind finger prints of politics and an apparent counter attack remotely connected to the 2027 elections in Enugu State.
The news report itself from the same media concluded that the Minister was never reached and did not respond to requests in the course of the purported investigation.
The issue of certificate scandal by the Minister of Science and Technology is a cold case which is believed to be maliciously resurrected as the build up to 2027 begins.
A former registrar of the University, Mrs Celine Nlebedum had responded to a previous enquiry by another media organisation confirming that the Minister was indeed a graduate of the University.
This didn’t go down well with some individuals in the politics of the state who bidded their time until a new Vice Chancellor was installed.
Professor Simon Uchenna Ortuanya,former Secretary to the Enugu State Government and a former Commissioner for Education in Enugu State was appointed the Vice Chancellor less than two months ago and he hurriedly resurrected the case by writing a counter confirmation that the Minister dropped out of the school.
Reports from people close to the Minister have it that the Minister filed a suit against the University following a tip off that some plans were in the offing to expunge his records from the University. The Minister had filed a request for his academic documents to confirm his suspicions, which was denied. This is apparently where premium Times jumped to the conclusions that the Minister admitted to forgery because the Minister deposed in his affidavit that he wrote requesting for those documents and they denied him. In doing so, they raised the question that if he didn’t have them, how then did he obtain the ones he used in his Ministerial screening. The answer wouldn’t have been difficult to know if the news media had done a thorough Job.
Many commentators believe that this was a counter attack to the Peter Mba certificate scandal case that became a top issue at the election tribunal.
Associates of the Minister believe that allies of the Governor are fighting back.
Some political commentators believe that the Minister, the Leader of the APC in Enugu State, who ran against the Governor in the 2023 Guber race has been an obstacle to the Governor ‘s bid to join the APC.
Cases like this are not unusual.
In 2018, Abia State University withdrew the certificate of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu amidst a toxic political battle in Abia State sparking a legal battle.
As events unfold, it will be difficult for the University to succeed in denying the graduation of the Minister from the Institution owing to the facts that he duly attended NYSC as a student from that University.
There are doubts as to whether actual investigations were conducted as claimed by the media house because of its shoddy nature and obvious partisanship.
The matter filed by the Minister is expected to come up in court today.
