THE Nigerian government has been on a mission to stamp out phony school credentials, bolstering the legitimacy of accreditations and degrees throughout the country.
As a result, Nigerian authorities have suspended degrees from specific countries. Kenya, Uganda, and Niger are the latest countries whose degrees have been nullified in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government intensifies crackdown on fake degrees, suspends accreditation for degrees from Kenya, Uganda, and Niger.
Recent measures follow earlier suspension of degrees from Benin Republic and Togo.
Nigeria’s Education Minister labels individuals with fake degrees as criminals.
To curb the fake degree endemic in Nigeria, the country’s government has decided to prohibit the kinds of foreign degrees accepted in the country. Very recently, the Nigerian government deemed varsity degrees from Kenya, Uganda, and Niger, invalid.
This is coming days after the suspension of accreditation and evaluation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo, as seen in the Nigerian newspaper, The Punch.
“We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo,” Tahir Mamman, the Minister of Education, said during a segment on the Nigerian TV channel, Channels.
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“We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up,” he added.
The crackdown was spurred by the expose issued by a Nigerian journalist from the Daily Nigerian newspaper who went undercover to investigate the malpractice of tertiary institutions in Benin. There he discovered that one can be issued a four-year degree in the space of just six weeks.
“Cotonou is not only famous for the thriving second-hand car business popularly called ‘tokunbo’; it also serves as a mecca for those in need of express degrees. The requirements are O-level certificates – fake or genuine – and the required amount of money, which varies depending on the course, urgency, and class of degree,” the report reads.
“And in less than a month or two, one can be a ‘graduate’ from any of the mushroom universities dotted across the two West African countries,” the report adds.
Tahir Mamman noted that the issue needed to be addressed as swiftly as possible, hence the quick sanctions issued on these countries. The minister called students who willingly procure such degrees; criminals.
“I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” the minister said. “They are not victims but participants in a criminal chain that should be dismantled,” he added.
Source: Business Insider Africa
