Bogus degrees
By The Nation Newspaper
...Fed. Govt. must go beyond suspending accreditation of degrees from Benin and Togo
An investigative report by Daily Nigerian Newspaper has led to the suspension of accreditation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo by the Federal Government. The report, titled “How Daily Nigerian reporter bagged Cotonou varsity degree in 6 weeks”, detailed how the reporter got the degree that should ordinarily take three or four years to acquire in just six weeks!
Consequently, Augustina Obilor-Duru, on behalf of the Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, issued a statement decrying the development. According to her, the government lamented that “some Nigerians deploy nefarious means and unconscionable methods to get a degree with the end objective of getting graduate job opportunities for which they are not qualified”.
The suspension would subsist pending the outcome of an investigation involving the ministries of foreign affairs and education of Nigeria and the two countries, as well as the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).
This, no doubt, is an unsavoury development that should jolt any right-thinking member of the public.
While we acknowledge that our higher institutions may not be enough to cater to the academic needs of those in search of the golden fleece, the point must be noted that acquiring degrees through the back door is reprehensible. Indeed, it is criminal.
A degree is supposed to be given to people who have been found worthy in character and in learning. Someone who obtains a degree that should take years to get in only a matter of weeks is not only unworthy of it in learning; he or she has also failed the character test.
This is why we agree with Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, a former National Universities Commission (NUC) Secretary, that Nigerians acquiring such degrees are “clear-headed crooks,” not victims. They knew what they were going into, ab initio.
According to him, “There is no victim, all those people with these certificates are clear-headed crooks who knew what they were paying for because some of them are people who cannot pass the UTME, and some do not have five O-level credits.
“So they go shopping for these bogus institutions where they get their bogus qualifications from.”
Sadly, we do not know how many people are parading such bogus certificates in the country. We do not know how many of them have benefitted from things they are not entitled to as of right, through possession of such certificates.
Sadder is the fact that despite the prevalence of the practice, especially in the Francophone countries, it took an investigative report to jolt the government to action. Yet, this is something that has been going on for long. As a matter of fact, it is also a thing that happens within the country. It has been alleged severally that such institutions exist in Nigeria that literally sell their degree and other certificates to people who can afford, not earn them.
The Federal Government therefore must be ready to go beyond previous efforts if it is genuinely interested in solving the problem once and for all.
In addition, we need to de-emphasise paper qualification. If this is done, and what people are capable of doing as opposed to the content of the paper qualification they parade, becomes a major criterion for employment, the desperation for foreign or local degrees through the back door would be tempered.
Meanwhile, we enjoin Nigerians with useful hints to support the government’s efforts at getting to the root of the matter by availing the investigative panel with information that may facilitate the enquiry so that the practice could be nipped in the bud.
We agree with the former NUC scribe that the commission must be involved in any investigation on this issue, given its expertise in Nigerian education quality.
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