*Prof. Tahir Mamman, Nigeria鈥檚 Minister for Education, asserts the government鈥檚 investigative committee鈥檚 recommendations, endorsed by the Federal Executive Council, are now for implementation along with other affected government ministries, departments and agencies affected, including NYSC, Immigration Service, noting 鈥榳e can鈥檛 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鈥�

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

In affirming the importance of Quality Assurance (QA) and credibility of any academic degrees Nigerians obtain from recognised higher institutions of learning, the Federal Government of Nigeria has said all fake Degree certificates some Nigerians obtained from 2017 to present from the Republics of Benin and Togo are now declared invalid.

绿帽献妻 reports the Nigerian Government also emphasised that all personnel currently in the employ of the Federal authorities with same fake Degree certificates are to be terminated immediately.

Audu Umar, an undecover report on fake University Degrees from neighbouring countries聽 聽 File Photo

The government has equally authorised the termination of employees in both the public and private sectors who possess counterfeit degree certificates acquired from the Republics of Benin and Togo.

Prof. Tahir Mamman, Nigeria鈥檚 Honourable Minister for Education, stated these at a press conference Friday, August 23, 2024, in Abuja, FCT.

The Minister, who disclosed this development on the occasion of his first anniversary in office, affirmed that these far-reaching measures were sanctioned in a recent meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Abuja.

Mamman said: 鈥淥ne of the things we did in the course of the year was 鈥� remember when information broke out about some of our students going to neighbouring countries 鈥攕ome not even going at all 鈥� to obtain certificates.

鈥淭he Ministry set up a committee to look into that; the committee came up with a detailed review.

鈥淭hat review was sent to the Federal Executive Council about a month ago, which approved some of the recommendations from the Ministry.鈥�

He also stated: 鈥淣ow, the recommendations will be implemented along with other ministries and agencies affected, including NYSC, Immigration.

鈥淏ecause 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.鈥�

Fake Certificates: Time to separate the wheat from the chaff, says Minister

Prof Mamman declared: 鈥淏ut by and large, we can鈥檛 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.鈥�

The Minister further explained: 鈥淲hat 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 and 2023.

鈥淭ogo is about 1,105. How did that happen? They simply attend schools, which are not recognised in those countries.鈥�

Benin, Togo don鈥檛 recognise 鈥榓cademic institutions鈥� issuing sham certificates

He stated: 鈥淩emember, this point is extremely important. The non-recognition itself is in those countries.

鈥淭hey are not institutions recognised to offer degree programmes in those countries.

鈥淚nstead, 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.鈥�

Mamman said: 鈥淚n 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.

鈥淪o anyone who didn鈥檛 attend these universities is parading a fake certificate.

鈥淎nd from 2017, anybody who attended a university solely run in English is wasting his time because it鈥檚 not an approved university. That is their policy.鈥�

He equally noted that 鈥渁 lot of our countrymen (Nigerians) went there鈥攕ome didn鈥檛 go anyway; remember, these numbers are just what we have, a lot of them didn鈥檛 even bother to go to NYSC.

鈥淭he number may be more鈥�. Some who attempted to but couldn鈥檛 succeed in the screening process disappeared into thin air.

SGF to issue circulars to public, private sector employers for action

Prof. Mamman declared: 鈥淪o, 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鈥攖hat circular probably would have been out by now.

鈥淎nd the Head of Service has also been mandated to fish out from the public service anybody who is parading certificate from these institutions.

鈥淪o this is the decision of the federal government on this matter.鈥�

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