BY NGOZI NWANKWO, ABUJA – The Federal Government has vowed to prosecute Civil Servants parading fake certificates obtained from the Republics of Benin and Togo.
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who announced this at a media briefing as part of activities marking his one year in office, said that the Federal Government has already issued a circular to fish out such civil servants parading certificates from unaccredited universities from the two francophone countries.
Prof Mamman revealed that over 21, 600 persons obtained certificates from unaccredited universities in Benin Republic, while about 1,105 also obtained theirs in some unaccredited Universities in Togo between 2017 and 2023.
The Minister said that the figure of the fake certificates was obtained through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) records.
Mamman further said; “From all indications, the figure is higher than what we have already. This is because some of the people choose not to participate in the mandatory NYSC scheme and other engagements that would have enabled us to harvest their data.
“Sadly, these people have used the fake certificates to apply and secure job opportunities in government and private organizations with the mindset that they schooled abroad, while people who studied day and night are out there looking for job opportunities.
“Even within the countries, Benin and Togo, these universities are not accredited to offer degree programmes. I don’t know how Nigerians chose to go to unaccredited institutions abroad to ‘study’.
“Our investigations also indicated that many of the people never even attended the school physically.
“Private sector operators are also encouraged to carry out further investigations on their staff who are parading foreign certificates, and ensure that anyone parading a certificate obtain from these countries between 2017 and 2023 are fished out and handed over to the Federal Ministry of Education for prosecution.
“The circular from the Head of Service will also be binding on private sector operators,” the Minister stressed.
