Another Buhari’s Minister, Kachikwu Busted For ‘Lying’ About University Degree

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has been accused of lying about graduating with a First Class degree in Law from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

An investigative report by a leading online newspaper, Premium Times, has revealed that contrary to Kachikwu’s claim that he obtained First Class in Law from UNN and was “the best student” among his set, the minister lied.

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The newspaper recalled how the State Petroleum Minister, while addressing an audience during the 17th anniversary celebrations of the Commonwealth Of Zion Assembly (COZA) in 2016, said “I had a first class in that institution (UNN)” in 1978.

Kachikwu made the claim while narrating how he was supposed to read medicine in the University but was forced by his father to change his choice of study.

The minister had said during the event, “…I went to Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University) to try and read medicine and I was there for two weeks and then I got admission to read law. My Father drove all the way to Ife to meet me and he asked, why do you want to go to the University?

“And I said, my ambition is to be a doctor and he said, why are you taking the line of what he called least resistance? And I said, what do you mean by that and he said, well, if you want to be a doctor why don’t you just go and read PHD, get to the very top…

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“My dad was talking to a little boy and that got me. So, I packed my bag, left the school of medicine and went to read law.

“And, I got in there, got a scholarship and became the best student, I had a first class in that institution (UNN).

“And then, I left from there to the law school and in the law school, I think just like the pastor said: people encourage you. All my colleagues came and said, we are all here representing our institutions, if you brought a first class from Nsukka you better make it work here where everybody is gathered…”

But investigation by the online medium however shows that contrary also to the claim in Kachikwu’s official biography on the website of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the minister obtained a second class upper (2:1) degree in Law from the UNN.

Mr Kachikwu is not the first minister in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet to be involved in a certificate scandal. Recently, the former Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, was forced to resign her office after it was confirmed that she was in possession of a forged National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) exemption certificate.

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Similarly, the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, recently admitted to reports that he skipped the mandatory national service. Shittu is however yet to be sacked by President Buhari for not having NYSC certificate.

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