…Brands them Criminals
By Jude Atupulazi
The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has tagged Nigerian students currently enrolled in higher institutions that have been de-listed by the Nigerian government as criminals.
Making this claim while speaking on Channels TV’s ”Politics Today”, on Wednesday, the education minister disclosed that he had no sympathy for Nigerian students affected by the de-listing of the foreign universities, adding that no Nigerian student should be associated with such institutions.
‘The students that patronize them (the de-listed institutions) are not victims but criminals, because no student from Nigeria has any business going to such places where they go there, pay money, disappear and reappear afterwards with what they call qualifications which are not qualifications at all. I have no sympathy for them; instead they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,’ the minister said.
His comment came after the Federal Government of Nigeria suspended the evaluation and accreditation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo.
The development was announced in a statement on Tuesday, January 2, signed by the spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Education, Augustina Obilor-Duru. She noted that the suspension was with immediate effect.
The government in the statement, lamented that “Some Nigerians deploy nefarious means and unconscionable methods to get a Degree with the end objective of getting graduate job opportunities for which they are not qualified.”
The statement added that the suspension would remain in place pending the outcome of an investigation involving the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education of Nigeria and the two countries, as well as the Department of State Security Services (DSS), and the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).
The action follows the investigative report by Daily Nigerian Newspaper titled “UNDERCOVER: How DAILY NIGERIAN reporter bagged Cotonou varsity degree in 6 weeks”.
Culled from LagosCity Reporters
