By Ebi Kesiena
The Federal Government of Nigeria has dismissed several civil servants whose degrees were obtained from private tertiary institutions in Benin Republic and Togo between 2017 and the present, according to a report by Punch.
Segun Imohiosen, the Director of Information and Public Relations in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), confirmed this development on Wednesday.
This action follows revelations earlier this year by a Nigerian journalist who exposed the ease of acquiring degrees from Benin Republic institutions within two months and using them for official purposes, including participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
In response, the government banned the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from such institutions and limited recognized degree-awarding universities in Benin Republic and Togo to just eight. The Federal Government also established an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee on Degree Certificate Milling to tackle the issue of fake academic qualifications.
Former Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, disclosed that over 22,500 Nigerians had obtained fraudulent degree certificates from the two francophone nations. The government subsequently canceled these certificates and directed that no exemptions would be made.
A memo from the Office of the SGF instructed all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to terminate the employment of workers holding certificates from private universities in Benin Republic and Togo within the specified timeframe. A source confirmed the directive was based on the recommendations of the inter-ministerial investigative committee.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has already implemented the directive, with five staff members dismissed, according to Caroline Embu, NYSC’s Director of Information.
This crackdown reflects the government’s commitment to addressing widespread certificate racketeering and upholding the integrity of Nigeria’s public service system.
