FORGERY: Stakeholders Advocate Certificate Verifications Of Politicians, Civil Servants

Following increasing allegations of certificate forgery among politicians in Nigeria, concerned citizens have advocated comprehensive certificate verifications and punishing offenders accordingly.

The national president of the Eastern Union, Charles Anike, Thursday, alleged that ‘there are many politicians and civil servants parading fake certificates in Nigeria’.

The pro-democracy group therefore called for forensic checks to ascertain the genuineness of all certificates of civil servants and politicians in Nigeria, with a view to arresting the culprits.

A forensic expert, Dr Law Mefor, told THE WHISTLER that, “Certificate forgery has since become a pandemic in Nigeria. It ranges from the acquisition of certificates by proxy to outright faking or forging certificates for an education they never received at all.

“It is prevalent among politicians but also rampant among civil servants and public servants. Solution to it is actually simple: launch certificate verifications for all official and electoral dealings and try all forgers and send them to jail. Others will learn once such examples are made of these intellectual thieves.”

A veteran journalist, Aniebo Nwam, said any person arrested for certificate forgery should be compelled to face prosecution.

In his words, “Certificate forgery is a criminal offence under Nigerian law. If, therefore, Nigeria is a nation governed by law, any person caught with a fake certificate should be arrested promptly by law enforcement agents and compelled to face prosecution in the courts.

“A civil servant so discovered deserves instant job loss, pending their prosecution. Where the offender is a political office-holder — lawmaker, governor, commissioner, minister, president — they should be removed from office or suspended, pending the conclusion of their prosecution in a competent court. And if they’re found guilty, they should be marched straight to jail — no option of a fine.

“As a preventive measure, all government agencies should be empowered to scrutinize every certificate presented by every job seeker even before granting them an interview. This job falls squarely on the laps of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the case of political office seekers. And this was provided in the Electoral Act until the relevant section was amended by politicians in 2007 or so.

“Another preemptive measure is prevention of exam malpractice at every level of education. Students no longer repeat classes! If cheats could be stopped in institutions, they wouldn’t have a chance to graduate. And if they didn’t graduate at all, they would be less tempted to fake certificates.

Accordingly, it would be lawful to punish students caught cheating as well as teachers and school administrators who aid the malpractice.”