The federal government Tuesday inaugurated a six-man committee to investigate the activities of private universities established in the last 15 years.
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, announced this in Abuja while inaugurating the inter-ministerial committee on degree mills in the country.
He said this would reveal whether the private institutions under investigation had prescribed facilities, adequate management structure, and adequate programme funding among others.
The committee membership cuts across Ministry of foreign Affairs, Office of National Security Adviser, Ministry of Youth Development and the National universities Commission (NUC).
It has eight weeks from the date of inauguration, within which to complete its investigation.
The committee has Professor Jubril D. Amin, chairman of the BOT Committee of Vice Chancellors as its head, and Dr. Chris Maiyaki, the acting Executive Secretary of the NUC as member.
The rest are Ambassador Lazarus Kpasaba from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abel Olanrewaju and Omeh Nwokpoku, both of the Office of the National Security Adviser, Amina Lugga from the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Mrs. Doom Iyortyom, a representative from JAMB, and also another representative from the Federal Ministry of Justice.
…Fake degrees syndicate
Blueprint reports that the activities of degree mills recently came to the fore following an investigative report by Umar Audu of Daily Nigerian newspaper on the associated fraud in awarding of degrees in both Benin Republic and Togo.
Audu, in the report, exposed how he obtained a degree in six weeks and went ahead to participate in the mandatory one-year national service under the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
The reporter, who had earlier served years back, said he got registered by changing his email address which made it difficult for the NYSC to detect this via the biometric system.
In the report, Audu said he linked up with the syndicate in the racket of selling degree certificates December 2022, graduated in February 2023 and got a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication certificate from the Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies, Cotonou, Benin Republic.
The development prompted the federal government to instantly ban the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from Benin Republic and Togo.
…NANS outcry
President National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in Benin Republic, Ugochukwu Favour had while featuring on Channels Television last week said 15,000 students stand affected by the federal government’s action.
“For now, I will say that the Federal Government should look into the issue. Now, you can’t because it is happening in this school, punish everyone because it involved close to 15,000 students in the Benin Republic.”
Also, while featuring on yet another Channels television programme-Politics Today, the education minister had said the investigation would cover some other African countries where such illegalities occur.
“We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger (Republic) here where such institutions have been set up.”
Inauguration
Inaugurating the committee in Abuja, the minister of education, Professor Mamman, mandated the committee to also review the role of any MDAs or its officials in facilitation of the recognition and procurement of fake certificate in question.
As a major term of reference, the minister charged the committee to examine “the veracity of the allegations of degree certificate racketeering within both foreign and local private universities in Nigeria.”
Other terms are: “Review the role of any MDA or its officials (including identifying such officials) in the facilitation of the recognition and procurement of the fake certificate in question;
“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.
“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, and processes to prevent re-occurrence and sanctions for identified erring officials;
“Make other recommendations that will strengthen the system of recognitions, accreditations, and quality assurance of degrees in Nigeria.
“Examine the extant rules, procedures, and processes for granting provisional licenses to new universities by the National Universities Commission.
“Examine the procedures and processes for periodic accreditation of programmes in the universities by the NUC and examine their effectiveness in quality assurance of the programmes;
“Without prejudice to the periodic accreditation exercise of the NUC, examine whether or not Private Universities established in the last 15 years have in the place prescribed facilities, appropriate management structure, adequate funding of programmes, requisite staff (nature of staff-full time, contract, adjunct, visiting, other types).”
