Nigerian government uncovers 21,600 fake degrees being paraded by foreign graduates

The Nigerian Government has disclosed that 21,600 students have obtained fake degrees from institutions in Benin Republic, Togo and other countries, declaring that those of them already in the civil service will be flushed out.

Penpushing reports that the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, disclosed this during a ministerial press briefing on his one-year achievements in the ministry, stressing that the so-called Nigerian graduates are parading fake degrees.

The Minister added that 1,105 individuals have been identified to be holding fake degrees from Togo alone emphasizing that the government has directed that the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to issue circular to flush out anybody with fake certificates from these institutions.

“The federal government has directed that the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to issue circular to flush out anybody with fake certificates from these institutions’, Mamman said.

“In Togo, there are three universities that are officially approved and licenced to offer degree courses and in Benin Republic, we have five institutions licenced for degree courses’, the Minister added.

Penpushing further reports that Mamman speaking on the challenges of tertiary institutions in meeting their needs as a result the high electricity tariffs, explained that President Bola Tinubu had approved a long-term solution of powering the institutions through CNG.

The Minister added that in the last one year, the ministry had been able to return about four million out-of-school children back to school, adding that this was achieved through the efforts of agencies under the ministry.

‘Henceforth, on annual basis, we will be returning about four million out-of-school children back to school to address the menace. The Almajiri commission that was just established about a year ago is doing a lot in helping to return the out-of-school children back to school’, he said.

“In the last two weeks, through the Almajiri commission, about 20,000 students in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been registered to resume in the next academic session. This gesture will trickle down to other states and we are going to see to it that our children get back to school’, he added.

“We have also set up a committee with UNESCO and World Bank to review the existing policy for teachers’ support, welfare and development using the global best practices. By the time the government implement these policies in the next three years, the system of education would have been completed transformed,”

Penpushing also reports that the minister on safety of students following the recent school collapse in Jos, pledged to collaborate with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering (COREN) to check school facilities across the country.

The Minister explained that the step would go a long way in checking sharp practices by building contractors, and disclosed that efforts are being made to meet the need of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to avert their planned strike actions.

Penpushing further reports that it is recalled that the Nigerian government in March set up an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee on fake degree certificate milling, to probe the activities of certificate racketeers following an investigative report published by Daily Nigerian which exposed the activities of fake degree mills in Benin Republic.

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