Premium Times Editor Reveals How Whistleblower Exposed Nnaji’s Certificate Scandal
The Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times and Chief Operating Officer, Musikilu Mojeed, has revealed that a whistleblower set the ball rolling on the investigation that exposed the alleged certificate forgery by former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji.
The Genius Media Nigeria reports that Mojeed spoke on Tuesday night as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, days after his newspaper published a detailed two-year investigation that uncovered discrepancies in Nnaji’s degree and NYSC certificates.
Nnaji has since resigned from President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet following the damning revelations.
According to Mojeed, the process began when Premium Times received an email from an anonymous whistleblower in 2023.
Mojeed said, “The whistleblower, he or she, was confident that if we did a diligent investigation, we would be able to uncover something shocking. And we took up the challenge, and then we started working on it. In 2023, we started working on it.”
He said the management immediately assigned reporters to dig into the allegations.
Mojeed further stated, “We had no battle with the minister. We didn’t know him. But for us, this is not the first time.
“Our strength is investigation. Everybody knows our newsroom for that. And when a matter is brought before us, we investigate.
“Sometimes, we find things that are indicting; sometimes, we don’t. But it’s our job as journalists, especially as required of us by the constitution, to hold power to account, which is what we have done here.”
The Premium Times editor recounted how the newsroom deployed Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to verify the certificates.
He revealed that the university failed to respond to the initial FOI request submitted on February 1, 2024, a delay he later linked to efforts by unnamed “interested parties” to frustrate the probe.
Mojeed added, “We couldn’t make progress with the investigation. Until we learned that in August, there is a new leadership at the university. We decided to try again. Initially, we wrote to just the registrar, but in our second attempt, we wrote to both the vice-chancellor and the registrar separately. We decided this time to courier the letter to each of them separately, which was what we did.
“Luckily for us, the vice chancellor responded. And just today, the registrar just responded, affirming the same thing that the vice-chancellor told us. So, that was how we worked on that.”
