The Federal Government implemented suggestions made by the Ministry of Education in partnership with other ministries, including the dismissal of public and private sector workers who used fake certificates from Benin Republic and Togo to gain employment.
“So in the final analysis, what the FG approved is that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation 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,” Education Minister, Tahir Mamman, said.
“And the Head of Service has also been mandated to fish out from the public service anybody who is parading certificates from these institutions.”
Mr Mamman announced this during a press briefing in Abuja on Friday to commemorate his one-year in office, noting that several measures proposed to address the issue of false certificates were accepted during a recent federal executive council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
The federal government, through the Ministry of Education and other relevant bodies, has been investigating degrees issued by tertiary institutions in Benin Republic and Togo following an investigation by Daily Nigerian in December 2023, which revealed how its reporter obtained a degree certificate in less than two months.
Within two months, the reporter received a degree from the Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies in Cotonou, Benin Republic, and was then authorised to participate in the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps plan for tertiary institutions graduates.
The federal government has given approval to recommendations proposed by the inter-ministerial committee set up by the FG to investigate the matter including invalidation of more than 22,000 “fake certificates” issued by schools in Benin Republic and Togo currently being paraded by Nigerians.
“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,” Mr Mamman said at the press briefing.
He said, “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.’’
He also confirmed that the committee had to take some major decisions as some staff members and those affected faced disciplinary measures, and the whole unit went through some kind of review.
He stated, “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 the Benin Republic, obtained between 2019 and 2023 while those obtained in Togo are about 1,105. How did that happen?,” the minister said.
He stated, “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.”
Mr Mamman berated some parents for taking “their wards to these institutions, noting that there was no way Nigerian authorities would recognise qualifications which were not recognised in those countries.
He added, “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.”
‘‘Nevertheless, “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,” Mr Mamman said. “The number may be more — some who attempted to but couldn’t succeed in the screening process disappeared into thin air.’’