FG Begins Probe Of Degree Certificate Racketeering

Federal government has set up an eight-man inter-ministerial committee to probe degree certificate racketeering by both foreign and local private universities in Nigeria.

The minister of education, Professor Tahir Mammam, who Inaugurated the committee in Abuja yesterday, tasked them to do their job diligently without fear of anyone.

The committee is headed by Professor J.D. Amin, chairman Board of Trustees (BoT) Committee of Vice Chancellors and has Dr Chris Maiyaki, the acting executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) as member of the committee.

Other members of the committee are; Amb. Lazarus Kpasaba from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abel Olarenwaju, Office of the National Security Advisor, Omeh Nwokpoku, Office of the National Security Advisor, Amina Lugga, Federal Ministry of Youth and Development, Mrs. Doom Iyortyom, JAMB and a representative from Federal Ministry of justice.

LEADERSHIP reports that the issue of degree mills, once again came to the centre of discussions in Nigeria, following an investigative report by Daily Nigerian reporter, Umar Audu.

In the report, Audu 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 (NYSC).

Following the report, Nigerian government took drastic measures to suspend the accreditation and evaluation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo.

However, at the inauguration, Mammam said the information he got is not only the neighbouring countries that are issuing fake degrees but outside Africa.

“These institutions are called degrees mills so we need to find out so that we protect the integrity of our education.

“We need to protect those who have worked hard to get degrees. We have a duty to protect this country from these categories of people.

“We also need to find out if indeed they have collaborators. We also need to know if some of the institutions we have in this country, particularly, the private ones are giving quality service after getting licenced.”

According to him, the terms of reference is to examine the veracity of the allegations of degree certificate racketeering within both foreign and local private universities in Nigeria and review the role of any MDA or its officials (including identifying such officials) in facilitation of the recognition and procurement of the fake certificate in question.

Others are „Review existing policies and procedures related to accreditation and certification to identify weaknesses contributing to the issue;

„Examine the rules, procedures and processes for recognition and accreditation of foreign universities and programmes by the Federal Ministry of Education and establish if unapproved foreign institutions (Degree Mills) exist or not in Nigeria in whatever form with their identities and locations if any;

„Make appropriate recommendations for review of any rules, procedures, processes to prevent re-occurrence and sanctions for identified erring officials and make other recommendation that will strengthen the system of recognitions, accreditations and quality assurance of degrees in Nigeria.

„Examine the extant rules procedures and processes for granting of provisional licences to new universities by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and without prejudice to the periodic accreditation exercise of the NUC, examine whether or not Private Universities established in the last 15 years have in place prescribed facilities, appropriate management structure, adequate funding of programmes, requisite staff (nature of staff-full time, contract, adjunct, visiting, other types).“