The Federal Government through the Ministry of Education has inaugurated an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee to look into the proliferation of unapproved institutions and phony degree certificates within and outside of Nigeria.
The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, while inaugurating the 11-man Committee members drawn from the Education Ministry and its Agencies; Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Youth, Justice, and Office of the National Security Adviser, added that the development is part of the efforts to clamp down on illegal universities and fake degree-awarding institutions.
The Minister noted that the Committee mandate includes reviewing the roles of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as its officials in facilitating the recognition and procurement of fake certificates.
The Nigerian government recently suspended the evaluation and accreditation of degrees from neighboring Benin and Togo. The government’s action followed an investigative report by a daily newspapers exposed on the corruption in the award of degree certificates in Benin Republic and evaluation of the same by the Nigerian government.
Mamman directs the Committee to examine all private universities established in the last 15 years to establish their prescribed facilities, appropriate management structure, adequate funding of programmes and requisite staff.
“The investigative panel is to establish if unapproved foreign institutions or degree mills exist in Nigeria or not and in whatever form with their identities and locations if any”.
Mamman also tasked the panel on reviewing the existing policies and procedures related to accreditation and certification in Nigeria with the aim of identifying weaknesses contributing to the problem.
He also asked the panel to make appropriate recommendations that will strengthen the system of recognition, accreditations, and quality assurance of degrees in Nigeria.
Members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee include the Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki; and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, Jibrila Amin, Professor of Veterinary Theriogenology.
Others are Lazarus Kpasaba from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Abel Olanrewaju, and Omeh Nwokpoku from the Office of the National Security Adviser; Amina Lugga from the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, and Doom Iyortyom from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
The education ministry also listed four individuals to serve as the secretariat of the committee. They are; Abubakar Kimba, Director of ICT; Rakiya Ilyasu, Director in charge of universities; Emmanuel Okposin, Deputy Director in the office of the permanent secretary; and John Kwaghe, a technical assistant to the Minister of Education.
