Certificate Racketeering Committee To Submit Report In Few Days-FG

The federal government has stated that the committee instituted to investigate certificate racketeering in the education sector will be submitting its report in a few days.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said the committee has completed its sittings on the matter and the report ready to be submitted soon.

THE WHISTLER reports that the Federal Government following an investigative report by Daily Nigerian Newspaper titled “UNDERCOVER: How DAILY NIGERIAN reporter bagged Cotonou varsity degree in 6 weeks”, set up a committee to investigate the matter.

The six-man Committee, which is headed by the Chairman Board of Trustee(BOT) Committee of Vice Chancellors, Prof. Jamila Amin has as members the Acting Executive Chairman of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Chris Maiyaki and representatives from the office of the National Security Adviser, Ministry of Youths, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB).

The terms of reference for the committee were to examine the veracity of the allegations of degree certificate racketeering within both foreign and local private universities in Nigeria.

The Committee was also expected to also review the role of any Ministry, Deportment and Agencies (MDA) or its officials; including identifying such officials in facilitation of the recognition and procurement of the fake certificate in question.

The committee’s terms of reference also include reviewing existing policies and procedures related to accreditation and certification to identify weaknesses contributing to the issue;

Other terms include, “Examine the rules, procedures and processes for recognition and accreditation of foreign universities and programmes by the Federal Ministry of Education.
“Establish if unapproved foreign institutions (Degree Mills) exist or not in Nigeria in whatever form with their identities and locations, if any.

“Make appropriate recommendations for review of any rules, procedures, processes to prevent re-occurrence and sanctions for identified erring officials;

“Make other recommendations that will strengthen the system of recognitions, accreditations, and quality assurance of degrees in Nigeria

“Examine the extant rules procedures and processes for granting of provisional licences to new universities by the National Universities Commission (NUC);

“Examine the procedures and processes for periodic accreditation of programmes in the universities by the NUC and examine their effectiveness in quality assurance of the programmes,” he said.

The committee was also expected to examine whether or not private universities established in the last 15 years have in place prescribed facilities, appropriate management structure, adequate funding of programmes, and requisite staff.

The minister, while commenting on the report of the panel, said he has not seen the content of the committee’s report.

“I understand that they are about to submit their report in the next few days. The committee has completed sitting. They are basically doing the editing work. Very soon, we will have it.

“I cannot comment on it (report) yet because the report is not before me, but it appears there is a problem (certificate racketeering),” he said.