The federal government has disclosed plans to terminate the employment of its staff with fake degree certificates from Togo and Cotonou in Benin Republic between 2017 and 2023.
It said its personnel currently working in the various ministries, departments, and agencies with questionable certificates from institutions in those countries will be fished out and dismissed.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who made the disclosure, said over 22,500 Nigerians are parading fake certificates from Benin Republic and Togo.
According to him, over 21,600 obtained certificates from unaccredited universities in Benin Republic within the time frame, while about 1,105 also obtained theirs at some unaccredited universities in Togo.
The Minister, while presenting his scores to mark his first year in office, said the federal government has also authorised that those in the private sector with counterfeit degree certificates should be sacked too.
Mamman explained that the initiatives were sanctioned in a recent meeting of the federal executive council, which was presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
He said: “One of the things we did in 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.
“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, and Immigration.
“Because we have to make some major decisions here, some staff who are affected faced disciplinary measures, and the whole unit went through some kind of review.
“But by and large, we can’t have in our midst people who procure fake certificates and 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 Benin Republic, obtained between 2019 and 2023.
“Togo is about 1,105. How did that happen? 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.
“Instead, 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.
“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.
“But 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.
“The number may be more…Some who attempted to but couldn’t succeed in the screening process disappeared into thin air.
“So 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—that circular probably would have been out by now.
“And the Head of Service has also been mandated to fish out from the public service anybody who is parading certificate from these institutions.
“So this is the decision of the federal government on this matter”.
Recall that an investigative report by a reporter, Umar Audu, with the Daily Nigerian newspaper on degree mills in Benin Republic and Togo, recently placed those countries in the spotlight.
The reporter revealed how he obtained a degree within six weeks and even proceeded to embark on mandatory youth service under the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
