By Okey Ikeogu
When Simon Ortuanya was controversially appointed the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in August this year, the first comment from a former student of the school , with Facebook username, Winter Vongozie, was thus; “my school, my pride, I hope he (new VC) doesn’t reduce the school standard “. With what has been happening in the university in the last two months, especially the allegations of forgery against the Minister of Science and Technology, the fears of that alumni have become a reality. Ortuanya has dragged the name of the premier indigenous university to the mud just to please his pay master, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State.
Let us be clear, Ortuanya was never qualified to be the Vice Chancellor. He never campaigned to be one based on his sterling academic credentials. Instead, he sought the job based on ethnic sentiments, whipping up sentiments that no Nsukka person has ever been the university’s vice-chancellor since its inception in 1960. It is also noteworthy that the man who started out as a lecturer in UNN could not even meet the highest standards of UNN to be assessed a professor, hence he fled to Enugu State University where he wangled his way through politicians to emerge a professor.
Incidentally, those who opposed his emergence as a vice-chancellor in UNN predicated their worries on the fact that he was not a grounded academic but rather a politician who has been more in government than in the classroom. They alleged he lacked integrity and is susceptible to manipulation by those who have granted him the political favours of being a Commissioner, Director General of South East Governors Forum, and lately, Secretary, Enugu State Government. Such a pliable character and pseudo-academic ought not to have darkened the office of a vice-chancellor abinitio. But Mbah foisted him on the university.
It has taken just two months for him to show where his loyalty lies, not to academics but politics. Anyone who has followed closely the resurgence of forgery allegations against Minister Uche Nnaji can’t fail to link the coincidence of Ortuanya coming as VC to the planned defection of Gov Peter Mbah from PDP to APC. Mbah wants to run to APC to stand a chance of reelection as a result of his abysmal performance in office. But he sees Nnaji as the only stumbling block to the realization of that ambition since the majority of Enugu people prefer the minister to be their governor in 2027.
That is where Ortuanya came in to pay back the political favours he received from politicians, especially Mbah and Ugwuanyi, by rubbishing the image of Uche Nnaji before PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU, APC AND ENUGU PEOPLE. Because they failed to stop Nnaji from becoming a Minister of the federal government in 2023 when they initially raised this prurile allegations and they were shut down with facts, the manipulators now want to use their “boy” to stop Nnaji from being the governor of Enugu State in 2027.
But it is really funny how, in their warped minds and haste to destroy the reputation of one man, they are prepared to damage the corporate image of a distinguished Nigerian university. What is at stake now is no longer an image problem for Nnaji but that of UNN where an interloper wants to ,within two months, erase a reputation that had survived intact for 65 years.
Let us examine the facts once more. When Nnaji was nominated a minister, in 2023, this issue of forgery was raised. Both the University of Nigeria and the National Youth Service Corps wrote to debunk it. I am also sure that Nigeria’s Secret Service did its job diligently and cleared Nnaji to be screened and sworn in as a minister.
Indeed, in a letter dated December 21,2023, the University Registrar, through Mrs I A S Onyeador, stated unequivocally that Nnaji was a bona-fide student of UNN from 1981 and graduated in 1985. Similarly, the National Youth Service Corps confirmed that the UNN indeed mobilized Nnaji for service.
The pertinent questions to ask are:!What has changed between 2023 and now? How come that the registrar, who in 2023 confirmed that Nnaji graduated from Nsukka, is now the sane person recanting? And pray ,when has it become the job of the Vice Chancellor to reply to external communications against the standard practice of the Registry handling such?
The answers are obvious. Ortuanya happened. He used his powers to force the registrar to recant and when he thought that would lead to suspicion as it has ultimately done, he threw caution to the wind and decided to sign the satanic letter by himself against the regulation of the university and to his eternal shame.
Knowing that even that hasty and shameless act was a phyrric victory for his masters, they called in their Comrade in crime, Premium Times, to spew out the outrageous claim that Nnaji has confessed to certificate forgery. What was their evidence? The Minister went to court to ” stop the university from revealing his crime.” What a malicious fake news from a medium deficit in honour and integrity. The interim order granted by Justice H J Yilwa on September 25, 2025, is clear. It states ” An interim order of injunction is hereby granted restraining the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the Senate of the University from TAMPERING with or continue to TAMPER with the academic records of Uche Geoffrey Nnaji at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, pending the determination of the substantive suit.” The emphasis here is on TAMPERING.
In fact, in the body of the suit, the Minister had expressly mentioned against tampering with his transcripts while in the university because those are the most vital and critical documents germane to the case. Just like Nnaji feared, Ortuanya has already tampered with the certificate and the validation letter from the registrar in 2023.
Like I said, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka is on trial here and not Uche Nnaji. Both the University Senate, ASUU and the alumni association should not allow one man’s greed to obliterate the good records of the University. Ortuanya has been procured by his political masters to destroy an innocent man. Stakeholders should not allow him to make the university become a collateral damage in this proxy political war of attrition.
It is necessary at this point for the federal ministry of education to immediately suspend this controversial political Vice Chancellor to restore the endangered integrity of the oldest indigenous university in the country.
