According to the Nigerian government, further nations, including Kenya, Uganda, and the Niger Republic, will be included in the suspension of degree certificate review and accreditation.
Following an undercover report by a Nigerian journalist with the Daily Nigerian newspaper detailing how he obtained a degree from a university in the Benin Republic in less than two months and was deployed for the National Youth Service Corps, the government earlier announced the suspension of accreditation and evaluation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo.
In addition to the government’s decision to halt the recognition of certificates from the two francophone West African countries, the minister stated that the investigation’s report would be due in three months.
Featuring on a Channels TV programme, on Wednesday, Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, said, “We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo.”
He added, “We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up.”
Mamman said students who frequent such institutions were not victims but criminals
On th“I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” he said, adding that security agents would go after those with fake certificates from foreign countries already using them to secure opportunities in Nigeria.
The issue of student loans, the minister said, “The President has given his word that it will be operational from this quarter and the committee is working very hard to ensure that the president’s word is implemented.”