The West African Examinations Council has officially verified the Senior School Certificate Examination results of Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, following renewed calls for clarification of his academic credentials.
The authentication comes after the Centre for Leadership Legacy International (Centre LLI), a civil society group, petitioned President Bola Tinubu in December 2025, urging an investigation into Tunji-Ojo’s academic records, particularly his WAEC certificate.
According to the attestation document provided to TheCable by the minister’s media office, Tunji-Ojo attended Staff Secondary School at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, and sat for the Senior Secondary School Examination in June 1999.
The certificate lists nine subjects, with grades ranging from A1 in Agricultural Science and Yoruba Language to C6 in English, Chemistry, and Further Mathematics.
The WAEC attestation, which includes Tunji-Ojo’s full name, date of birth, embossed photograph, certificate number, and official authentication markings, confirms the results as valid and recognized by the examination body. “WAEC attestations serve to verify or replace original certificates and are fully valid representations of a candidate’s results,” a WAEC spokesperson explained.
Tunji-Ojo, appointed by President Tinubu in 2023, oversees agencies responsible for internal security, correctional services, migration, and border management. Following his appointment, questions arose about his academic documents, including his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
The NYSC clarified that although Tunji-Ojo was first mobilized in 2006 but did not complete the program, he was remobilized in 2019 and served in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in Abuja. The NYSC certificate was officially issued in February 2023.
A statement from the service said, “The minister’s certificate is genuine, and earlier omissions were administrative errors during certificate printing.”
Despite these confirmations, some groups continue to raise concerns over Tunji-Ojo’s records, which supporters describe as politically motivated attempts to discredit him. “These allegations are being circulated despite the facts already presented by WAEC and NYSC,” a senior aide to the minister told TheCable.
