The administration led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has pledged to root out individuals possessing counterfeit certificates from both public and private entities.
Tinubu, who is reported to have attended a non-existent secondary school, has been embroiled in controversies over his academic credentials from Chicago State University (CSU). The university has publicly distanced itself from the certificate Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), raising questions about its legitimacy.
However, a senior official from Chicago State University, Carl Westberg, testified under oath in a US court that the replacement diploma certificate Tinubu submitted to INEC did not originate from their institution.
In a related development, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, expressed his commitment to this cause during a speech in Abuja. He was accepting the findings of an inter-ministerial committee investigating degree certificate fraud, led by Prof. Jubrila Amin. The committee, established earlier this year, was charged with probing reports of degree fraud in local and international private universities and assessing the role of government agencies or personnel in facilitating the issuance and recognition of fake certificates.
Mamman expressed shock at the findings of the investigation and assured that the ministry would work with relevant authorities to purge the education sector of fraudulent activities and uphold its integrity. He emphasized the need to maintain the credibility of the education system and expressed concern over individuals parading international first-class certificates despite graduating from Nigerian institutions with lower grades.
The minister pledged to take decisive steps to sanitize the system and uphold educational standards, stressing that the country cannot afford to compromise on quality.
Presenting the report, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Amin, expressed grave concern over the subpar quality of education provided by certain institutions. He called for comprehensive intervention, including the digitization and automation of all education-related processes across agencies within the sector. He highlighted the benefits of an automated education system, which would allow centralized monitoring of activities in tertiary institutions from any location.
Amin also advocated for the establishment of more universities in the country, particularly those focusing on training PhD holders, to reduce the need for Nigerians to seek certifications abroad and potentially obtain counterfeit credentials. He urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to prioritize oversight of institutions offering part-time or sandwich programs to prevent a recurrence of issues like the 2017 controversy involving unaccredited course offerings.
“People go and get fake degrees and we have been to those countries and we know what a proper degree looks like, we know what the fake one looks like. It is up to the ministry to find out people with fake certificates and deal with them in whatever way they deem fit,” he said.
