In the thick of the fake certificate scandal, the Nigerian government has made plans to extend sanctions to more African countries by postponing accreditation and evaluation of university degrees from Uganda, Kenya and Niger Republic.
This development is coming barely 24 hours after the Nigerian government blacklisted 18 foreign universities from Benin Republic and Togo.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahi Mamman, made this revelation during a Channels Television interview on Wednesday, 3 January.
In his words:
“We [the government] are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo. We are going to increase the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, and even in nearby Niger here where such institutions have been set up.”
This emergency-like announcement is coming after an undercover journalist detailed how he got a degree from a university in the Benin Republic under two months.
The journalist added that he got the fake certificate from Niger Republic after spending about N600,000.
As a result, the Federal Government quickly suspended the accreditation of certificates from the two francophone West African nations and initiating an investigation, which the minister had said the report should be submitted in three months.
Mamman had also said that students who do business with such institutions were not victims but criminals.
The Minister had finally, announced that the security agents will go after those with forged certificates from foreign countries, who were already using them to secure opportunities in Nigeria.
