There are indications that the Nigerian Government has started sacking some civil servants who obtained degrees from private tertiary institutions in Benin Republic and Togo.
The immediate past Education Minister, Professor Tahir Mamman, had gotten a nod from the Federal Executive Council to issue a directive, which will affect federal workers who secured jobs from 2017, using such certificates.
In January 2024, News filtered in that an undercover investigation report, by a Nigerian journalist who acquired a degree from a University in Benin Republic in two months, had used it to participate in the compulsory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC scheme.
Officials at the Federal Ministry of Education and the NYSC became unsettled, prompting
the Federal Government to set up an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee on Degree Certificate and probing the activities of certificate racketeers from some neigbouring West African countries.
In August 2024, following the panel’s report, the government banned the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from tertiary institutions in Benin Republic and Togo.
This development sparked protest from graduates, their parents, and persons of interest
Unbended by the protests, in August, the federal government announced that only eight Universities had been accredited to award degrees to Nigerians in Togo and Benin Republic.
The immediate past Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, revealed that over 22,500 Nigerians obtained fake degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo, and such certificates would be cancelled.
Mamman explained that the revelation was part of a report submitted to the Federal Executive Council by the investigative committee
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In November, at his maiden interaction with the media, Minister of Education Tunji Alausa, insists there was no going back on the decision by the Federal Executive Council regarding the said certificates and said civil servants with such certificates will be fished out
Latest reports say some civil servants have been dismissed, a move that ait.live gathered, started in September.
The Director of Information and Public Relations in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen, confirmed the development to journalists on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
Omohiosen insisted there was no going back on the Federal Government’s decision to cancel about 22,500 certificates awarded to Nigerians by what he called some “fake” Universities in the two Francophone Countries.
Although, AIT has been unable to ascertain the exact number of affected civil servants, it was gathered that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Cabinet Affairs had issued a memo to all the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to implement the order.
AIT also learnt that some agencies like the National Youth Services Corps have commenced the implementation of the directive.
The NYSC Director of Information, Caroline Embu, confirmed the development to one of the national dailies that five members of staff have been sacked in line with the SGF’s directive.
The institutions that produced the alleged fake certificate in Togo and Benin Republic appear not to be fighting back, neither
have the affected students threatened any legal action against the Nigerian government, home or abroad. But a few others would not lie low.
In 2014, the National Universities Commission sponsored an investigation made up of a team of journalists, who visited some African countries. The team reported the existence of some mushroom Universities offering admissions to gullible Nigerians. It also revealed that ASUU strike is a major reason why Nigerians rush abroad to attend sub-standard institutions.
(Editor: Nkoli Omhoudu)
