The federal government has disclosed that only eight universities are accredited to award degrees to Nigerians in both Togo and Benin Republic.
This was disclosed by the
Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, on Sunday.
The Minister also insisted that
there is no going back on the decision of the federal government to cancel
about 22,700 certificates awarded to Nigerians by some “fake” universities in
neighbouring Togo and Benin Republic.
Speaking on Channels
Television’s Sunday Politics programme, Mamman maintained that the decision to
invalidate the certificates was not a harsh one as Nigerians who obtained
degree certificates from such “illegal” tertiary institutions are denting the
country’s image and the authorities in the neighbouring Francophone West
African countries also adjudged the concerned schools as fake.
Recalls the Minister, during a
press conference on Friday to mark his one year in office, disclosed that over
22,700 Nigerians obtained fake degree certificates from the two countries and
such certificates would be cancelled.
Mamman narrated that the development was part of a report submitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) by a committee with a mandate to probe degree certificate racketeering by foreign and local universities in Nigeria following the undercover investigation report in which a Nigerian journalist acquired a degree from a university in Benin Republic in under two months and used it to get deployment for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
During the programme on Sunday,
the minister said the federal government only recognised three institutions in
Togo and five in Benin Republic while identifying others as illegal
institutions.
He lamented that most of those
parading the fake certificates didn’t even leave the shores of Nigeria but got
their certificates through racketeering in collaboration with government
officials at home and abroad.
The minister added that the
“fake universities” capitalised on the “gullibility” of Nigerians who patronise
such fake schools.
According to him, the
government, through the offices of the Head of Civil Service and the Secretary
of the Government of the Federation, would fish out those in the employment of
the government with such fake certificates. He urged the private sector to
follow suit.
Mamman identified three
universities which the federal government approved to offer degree programs in
Togo for students from Nigeria as:
1. UNIVERSITE DE LOME
2. UNIVERSITE DE KARA
3. CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF WEST
AFRICA.
He also listed five accredited
universities that have been authorized to provide degree programs in the
Republic of Benin for students from Nigeria.
1. UNIVERSITE D’ABOMEY-CALAVI
2. UNIVERSITE DE PARAKOU
3. UNIVERSITE NATIONALE DES
SCIENCES, TECHNOLOGIES
INGENIERIE ET MATHEMATIQUES.
4. UNIVERSITE NATIONALE D’
AGRICULTURE.
5. UNIVERSITE AFRICAINE DE
DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIF.
The five officially recognized
universities in Cotonou, Benin Republic, are all public universities.
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