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Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, has accused Al Jazeera of practising what he called ‘opposition-style journalism’ after his interview on “Head to Head” took him to task over his past comments against President Bola Tinubu.
On the programme hosted by Mehdi Hasan, which examined Tinubu’s administration under the theme “Nigeria: ‘Renewed Hope’ or ‘Hopelessness’?”, Bwala was confronted with past quotes, video clips, and statements from his time in the opposition – when he was aligned with former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
The interview went viral, to which Bwala responded in a statement.
In the statement, Bwala stressed that he remained “prepared to appear before any interviewer, anywhere in the world, any day and at any time, to defend this government and its policies.”
He said ‘Head to Head’ contacted him requesting an interview to challenge Tinubu’s government on security, the economy, and corruption.
Read Also: Former Minister Nnaji Forged UNN Degree And NYSC Certificates
However, he noted, “Nowhere in our almost six months of communication did they mention that they were going to challenge my past. If that had been their plan, ethically and professionally, they were supposed to inform me so I could prepare my response.
“But that’s okay, ethically, that is on them, not on me. I refused to swallow the pill of Mehdi’s ‘opposition research-style journalism,’ and even today, if you carefully compare what he read as quotes from organisations and groups, you will see that many were inaccurate and some were outright fake news.
“But I will leave that for another day. As for what I said about President Tinubu in the past, I am glad those were things I said when I was in the opposition saddle with such zeal. It is all politics.
“Half of Donald Trump’s cabinet is made up of people who once spoke against him, and quite a number of people in our own cabinet also spoke against President Tinubu in the past. Those things do not bother him if you care to know.
“The majority of the naysayers are members of the opposition and their sympathisers. It does not bother me one bit.
“Their temporary excitement over the interview has not lasted and will not last, because it does not take away their obvious problem of lack of vision, mission in conducting and managing a political party; yet they seek to manage Nigeria.
“Clearly they have no path to victory and no alternative policies or program for the Nigerian people. And if they say they do, they can as well go to head to head and be interrogated on that; as the saying in Hausa goes ‘Ga fili Ga doki’”.
A federal government investigative panel has confirmed that former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Uche Nnaji forged both his University of Nigeria Nsukka degree certificate and his National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate, the most authoritative institutional finding yet in a scandal that began with a two-year newspaper investigation, forced his resignation from the cabinet in October 2025.
The seven-member panel, constituted on November 23, 2025 by Minister of Education Tunji Alausa in response to a petition filed by Nnaji himself, submitted its report to the minister in December 2025. The report was made public on Thursday.
The panel conducted a physical visit to UNN in Nsukka, examined Nnaji’s academic files and internal correspondence, reviewed UNN’s historical academic records, registry movement logs, Senate lists, convocation archives, and electronic access logs, and interviewed the university’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Simon Ortuanya, former Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Oguejiofor Ujam, Registrar Celine Nnebedum, Records Unit officials, and other staff involved in handling academic records. The conclusion was unambiguous and consistent with every earlier finding: Nnaji did not graduate from UNN and no degree was issued to him.
The panel’s findings complete a chain of institutional confirmation that began in October 2023, when Premium Times sent a Freedom of Information letter to UNN as part of what became a two-year investigation into Nnaji’s academic records. The UNN Vice-Chancellor confirmed in his October 2, 2025 response that although Nnaji, with Matriculation Number 1981/30725, was admitted to the university in 1981, he did not complete his studies and was never awarded a degree.
“From every available records and information from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, we are unable to confirm that Mr Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji graduated from the University of Nigeria in July 1985, as there are no records of his completion of study,” Ortuanya wrote.
The UNN Registrar subsequently corroborated that position. NYSC authorities, in a separate FOI response, disowned the discharge certificate in Nnaji’s possession, stating they could not authenticate it. Premium Times’ investigation found additional irregularities in the NYSC certificate: Nnaji’s discharge certificate indicated he served in Plateau State between April 16, 1985, and May 15, 1986 — a 13-month period. The statutory NYSC service duration is 12 months, and of approximately 50 NYSC certificates reviewed by the newspaper, only Nnaji’s showed a 13-month service period.
Read Also: Tinubu’s Minister, Uche Nnaji Resigns Over Certificate Forgery
Nnaji filed his petition to the Ministry of Education on October 14, 2025 — days after the Premium Times investigation was published — alleging that UNN officials had engaged in unethical disclosure, document tampering, and political manipulation of his academic records.
He accused UNN Vice-Chancellor Ortuanya and former Acting Vice-Chancellor Ujam of issuing forged or unauthorised correspondence and impersonating him. The panel’s report rejected those counter-allegations entirely and instead confirmed that the forgery lay with Nnaji, not the university. Nnaji had previously taken the same argument to the Federal High Court in Abuja, filing a suit intended to block UNN from releasing his academic records. In the affidavit he filed in that suit, Nnaji admitted that UNN never issued him a degree certificate — an admission that effectively constituted a judicial confession to the core allegation against him.
Nnaji resigned as minister on October 8, 2025, three days after the investigation was published, describing himself in a statement as “a target of blackmail by political opponents.” Under Section 1(2)(c) of Nigeria’s Miscellaneous Offences Act, any person who makes or utters a forged document knowing it to be false or with intent that it may be used as genuine, whether in Nigeria or elsewhere, is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 21 years without the option of a fine. He could also face prosecution under the Criminal Code Act and the Penal Code applicable in Abuja, where the certificates were submitted.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has initiated a formal investigation into the matter, writing to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume and the Nigerian Senate demanding copies of the documents Nnaji submitted in support of his ministerial appointment in 2023.
