Fake Degrees: FG Inaugurates Committee To Combat Menace

The Federal Government on Tuesday set up an inter-ministerial committee to tackle the activities of degree scandal.

The Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, made this known in a notice sent to newsmen in Abuja.

“Education Minister, Prof.Tahir Mamman, will this afternoon, inaugurate an inter-ministerial committee on degree mills,” Goong said.

Osun Defender reports that an investigative report by a reporter, Umar Audu, with the Daily Nigerian newspaper which exposed the illegalities perpetrated by some tertiary institutions in the West African states led to the Nigerian government imposing a ban on the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from Benin Republic and Togo.

Mamman later said that President Bola Tinubu’s administration would further extend its searchlight to institutions in other African countries such as Ghana.

Audu in the report 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.

Audu, who reached out to the syndicate that specialises in selling degree certificates in December 2022, graduated in February 2023 and was issued a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication certificate from the Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies, Cotonou, Benin Republic.