By Remigus Okoronkwo
In their in-depth assessment and half-term scorecard of President Bola Tinubu’s ministers published by the paper’s Saturday Editor on 24th May 2025, ThisDay Newspaper listed the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, among the worst-performing ministers.
Entitled “Honest Assessment of Tinubu’s Ministers,” the ministers were rated under three broad categories — The Bright Spots, Not Pulling Their Weight, and Sleeping Ministers. Whereas the likes of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike; Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister, Festus Keyamo; Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar; Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy Minister, Dr. Bosun Tijani; and Health Minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, among a few others, were placed in the first category, Enugu-born Uche Nnaji was rated as a Sleeping Minister.
The paper’s own words:
“The leading figure among them is the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Geoffrey Nnaji. Nnaji has been largely absent from public discourse to the extent that a lot of persons mistake Bosun Tijani as the person in charge of his Ministry. At a time when Nigeria desperately needs forward-thinking leadership to harness technology for national development, his performance has been underwhelming. Many observers view his tenure so far as disappointing, marked by a lack of visibility and measurable progress. Nnaji has remained colourless and far from inspiring.”
Concluding, the paper stated:
“President Tinubu must be reminded that history is kinder to leaders who prioritize performance over political loyalty. The Nigerian people, who endure daily hardship, cannot afford more years of mediocrity. Cabinet reshuffles should be on the table, not as a political tool, but as a performance audit mechanism. Ministers who produce tangible results should be encouraged, and those, according to Afrobeat singer Davido, who are full of ‘cho cho cho, no workings,’ should be shown the exit door.”
Although Nnaji came out to strongly contest his rating, claiming it was the handiwork of his perceived political enemies, the realities were too stark for unbiased minds not to make up their minds on the assessment. Besides his well-known handicap, which writ large on his controversial educational history, he has spent more time in Enugu than in his office in Abuja, doing more ‘cho cho cho’ than getting his primary job as minister done — all this in a failed bid to demonstrate to President Tinubu that he is capable of delivering Enugu to the APC come 2027.
However, this man called Tinubu, an old and experienced warhorse and strategist, does not bear the name Jagaban for nothing. He probably knows that Uche Nnaji cannot even deliver his polling booth and ward, let alone the entire state, as the last election clearly shows.
I like to deal in statistics. Of a total of 450,969 (nearly half a million) valid votes cast in Enugu State in the 2023 presidential election, Nnaji was only able to secure a paltry, watery 4,772 votes, representing an infinitesimal 1.04% of the votes. He secured only 2.11% of the presidential ballots cast in his Nkanu West LGA for Jagaban. Expectedly, he lost the House of Representatives (Nkanu East/Nkanu West Federal Constituency) seat and Enugu East senatorial seat to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), respectively, on the same day.
The outcome was expected. Whereas Uche Nnaji lacked the credibility to rally support for the APC, he successfully turned the ruling party into a one-man business in Enugu State, with Ugo Agballa as the Managing Director. With the help of his well-known governor friend somewhere in the South East, he has successfully sidelined or provoked credible and respected stalwarts like Senator Ken Nnamani, former Governor Sullivan Chime, Dr. Ben Nwoye, the late Senator Ayogu Eze, Hon. Eugene Odoh, among others. So, they decided to ‘siddon look’ as Nnaji and his external friends disgraced themselves at the polls. If you ask most Enugu people and APC faithful, his appointment as minister was unmerited in the first place and a reward for an abysmal performance.
Nnaji was also floored as APC’s governorship candidate. Dr. Peter Mbah came from the private sector, where he built a corporate giant, unicorn, and oil and gas downstream subsector market leader known as Pinnacle Oil and Gas, to muster a total of 160,895 votes to emerge victorious. Hon. Chijioke Edeoga of the LP got 157,552 votes to place second. While Frank Nweke Jr of APGA came third with 17,983 representing 5% of the valid votes, Uche Nnaji only managed to get 14,575 votes across the entire 17 LGAs to place a distant fourth, representing 4% of valid ballots.
Furthermore, he was mercilessly flogged even in his own backyard, beaten by Dr. Mbah of Nkanu East LGA and Chijioke Edeoga of Isi-Uzo LGA in his Nkanu West LGA. Whereas he polled just 1,676 votes in his LGA, Mbah got 8,382 votes, while Edeoga secured 2,577 votes.
So, in the end, Nnaji could not win a House of Assembly seat, a House of Representatives seat, a senatorial seat, let alone a governorship seat for the APC in the last general election. Not just that, he could not even win votes cast in any ward or LGA for his party. What a disgrace!
Instructively, in his election petition against Governor Mbah, Nnaji never claimed that he won the election. Instead, he prayed the Tribunal to disqualify Mbah, who placed first; disqualify Edeoga, who placed second; and disqualify Frank Nweke Jr. of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who placed third. He further prayed the Tribunal that after the disqualification of the winner and other viable candidates (for all manner of frivolous reasons), the Tribunal should either declare him the winner or order INEC to conduct a runoff election between him and other remaining and inconsequential candidates. Wonderful!
Put another way, he wanted to reincarnate the Imo State scenario and become the Supreme Court Governor of Enugu State. But he was not as lucky. The Tribunal dismissed the petition on 20th June 2023. The Court of Appeal did the same on 18th July 2023 and even awarded the sum of ₦250,000 against Nnaji for such a frivolous and incompetent petition. So, the matter was already dead even before it got to the Supreme Court, which sealed his fate.
Lastly, to date, Uche Nnaji is yet to come clean on his degree certificate and NYSC discharge certificate. A detailed report by Gazette Nigeria (https://gazettengr.com/exclusive-how-sss-ignored-nysc-alert-misled-nigerian-senate-to-confirm-uche-nnaji-as-tinubus-tech-minister-with-forged-national-service-certificate/) detailed what the online news platform alleged to be a major certificate scandal.
Excerpts of the report read:
“The minister’s UNN certificate, issued in December 1985, said he graduated in July 1985. This suggests that the minister mobilised for national service before officially graduating from the university…. The Gazette searched through the UNN Senate’s list for 1985 graduates but could not find Mr. Nnaji’s name. Mr. Nnaji’s first name, Geoffrey, was spelt incorrectly as Geoffery on his UNN certificate, even though it was spelt correctly on all other credentials he submitted to the Nigerian Senate, including the bogus NYSC certificate.”
Why has Uche Nnaji not sued The Gazette? Your guess is as good as mine.
All said, there is absolutely, virtually nothing Uche Nnaji, a political featherweight with heavy baggage, who could not deliver himself, can deliver to the APC in Enugu. Let the physician first heal himself.
Okoronkwo, a political analyst, writes from Enugu.
