On Wednesday, January 3, the Nigerian government declared that it was planning to stop the assessment of degrees from Kenya and four other nations in Africa. Nigerian Education Minister Professor Tahir Mamman, who promised to overhaul his nation’s educational system, conveyed this.
Nigeria announced that it would be expanding the suspension to include Togo, the Benin Republic, Uganda, and Niger.
Why Nigeria seeks to outlaw degrees from Kenya
According to Tahir Mamman the penalties were put in place after a Benin Republic university awarded an investigative journalist a degree after less than 60 days of study. He applied for and was sent to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) using the certifications he had obtained shortly after receiving his degree.
“We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo. We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up,” Mamman stated.
He clarified that the suspension had been extended to Kenya and other nations in order to purge certificates from questionable universities.
“If along the line, we can trace that there are people already in the system. For instance, if a particular institution or operator has been operating, say in the last 10 years, we will check if we can get records of Nigerians who attended that institution,” the Education Minister explained how Nigeria was tackling the case of fake certificates.
Nigerian Professor Tahir Mamman reveals more
The Minister went on to say that Nigerian citizens who obtained degrees from institutions under suspicion would not be taken well by the country’s federal government.
“I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” he said.
According to an investigation, Nigerians were obtaining doctoral dissertations from overseas universities in order to use them as leverage for employment opportunities at home.
The Nigerian Federal Government declared that it had sent security personnel to apprehend people carrying forged certificates. The Ministry of Education in Nigeria did not clarify if it was aimed at all universities in Kenya, Uganda, and Niger or only those lacking physical infrastructure.
However, the Kenyan government has not yet responded to Mamman’s statement. Furthermore, despite accusations against Kenya, Uganda, and Niger, the Nigerian government did not present any evidence that any institution in those nations had provided degree certificates in violation of the law.
