The federal government has approved the dismissal of workers in the public and private sectors with fake degree certificates obtained from Benin and Togo Republics.
The minister of Education,
Tahir Mamman, who disclosed this during a press conference to celebrate his one
year in office in Abuja on Friday, said the measures were approved during a
recent federal executive council meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.
He said the decision is part of
the recommendations of an inter-ministerial committee set up by the federal
government to investigate an undercover report published by DAILY NIGERIAN in
December.
The report exposed how how
degree certificates from Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies, ESGT,
Cotonou, Benin Republic, were obtained by a DAILY NIGERIAN undercover reporter,
Umar Audu, in less than two months.
He also used the certificate to
participate in the National Youth Service Scheme, NYSC, despite having
participated in the scheme legitimately almost five years earlier.
Mr Mamman, however, said most
of the institutions attended by Nigerian students from the two countries are
not licensed to offer degree programs.
The minister said, “One of the things we did in the course of the year was — remember when information broke out about some of our students going to neighbouring countries —some not even going at all — to obtain certificates.
“The ministry set up a
committee to look into that; the committee came up with a detailed review; that
review was sent to the federal executive council about a month ago, which
approved some of the recommendations from the ministry.
“Now the recommendations will
be implemented along with other ministries and agencies affected, including
NYSC, Immigration.
“Because we have to take some
major decisions here, some staff who are affected faced disciplinary measures,
and that the whole unit went through some kind of review.
“But by and large, we can’t
have in our midst people who procure fake certificates and to compete with our
students who graduated from our universities and polytechnics through their
sweat, some spent four, five, six, or more years going out to compete with
people who procure certificates right here without going anywhere, for a lot of
them.
“So what the FEC now approves
is that, through the data, that NYSC has, about 21,684 students that are
parading fake certificates from Benin Republic, obtained between 2019 to 2023.
“Togo is about 1,105. How did
that happen? They simply attend schools, which are not recognised in those
countries.
“Remember, this point is
extremely important. The non-recognition itself is in those countries. They are
not institutions recognised to offer degree programs in those countries.
“Instead, some of our parents, take their wards to these institutions, and of course there is no way we would recognise qualifications which are not recognised in those countries.
“In the case of Togo, we have
three universities that are officially approved and licensed to offer degrees,
and in Benin, there are about five of them.
“So anyone who didn’t attend
these universities is parading a fake certificate.
“And from 2017, anybody who
attended a university solely run in English is wasting his time because it’s
not an approved university. That is their policy.
“But a lot of our countrymen
went there—some didn’t go anyway; remember, these numbers are just what we
have, a lot of them didn’t even bother to go to NYSC.
“The number may be more Some
who attempted to but couldn’t succeed in the screening process disappeared into
thin air.
“So in the final analysis, what
the federal government approved is that the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, SGF, will issue a circular to all employers, whether public or
private, to fish out anybody with a certificate from these institutions—that
circular probably would have been out by now.
“And the Head of Service, has
also been mandated to fish out from the public service anybody who is parading
certificate from these institutions.
“So this is the decision of the
federal government on this matter”.
Post a Comment