𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗺: 𝗧𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗯𝘂 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗺: 𝗧𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗯𝘂 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆

𝗕𝘆 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗗𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗮 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀,

𝗢𝗻𝗱𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁,

18𝘁𝗵 𝗗𝗲𝗰. 2025.

 In what now resembles a travelling theatre of academic mysteries, a civil society organisation, the Centre for Leadership Legacy International (Centre LLI), has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to run his government with what it described as “utmost integrity,” lest the nation’s moral compass be misplaced between missing graduation dates and time-travelling certificates.

In a statement signed by its spokesman, Davies Isaiah Ijele, the group urged the President to peer closely into the educational credentials of the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, whose academic timeline, according to the CSO, appears to have developed a life of its own.

The Centre noted that allegations of certificate discrepancies trailing the minister have grown too loud to be ignored, warning that silence could weigh heavily on the credibility rating of the Tinubu administration — an administration that promised renewed hope, not renewed paperwork puzzles.

According to the group, Tunji-Ojo’s official INEC Form EC9, submitted during his 2019 bid for the House of Representatives, lists a first degree from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) with no stated year of graduation, alongside a master’s degree from London Metropolitan University dated 2006 — a year that has since become central to the controversy.

The plot thickened further, the group alleged, during the minister’s 2023 Senate screening, when a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate dated 2023 reportedly surfaced. The explanation offered, widely reported in the media, was that the minister had been mobilised in 2006, absconded, and was later remobilised, with the discharge certificate finally printed in February 2023 — nearly two decades after the original mobilisation.

Centre LLI observed that the arithmetic of the narrative raises troubling questions: a master’s degree allegedly completed abroad in 2006, simultaneous mobilisation for NYSC in Nigeria the same year, a legislative career commencing in 2019, and a discharge certificate emerging conveniently in 2023 — just in time for ministerial vetting.

In the group’s telling, the Interior Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria — custodian of internal security — now stands at the centre of an academic riddle involving degrees without dates, service years without service, and certificates that seem to obey no known calendar.

The organisation therefore called on President Tinubu to intervene decisively, stressing that integrity, once compromised, cannot be reprinted like a certificate, nor remobilised after public trust has absconded.

Centre LLI concluded that addressing the matter transparently would serve not only the presidency, but the nation, which watches closely as governance, accountability, and common sense attempt to graduate together.