Scholars from Cotonou

It’s been happening for as long as time existed. (Pardon the hyperbole.) Only that now, it is demonstrably shown that pizza certificates are available from supposed institutions of higher learning, and those certificates could pass scrutiny test sufficiently to get accepted for institutional schemes like the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). And we know too well  that once a certificate passes the youth service scheme crucible, it gets absorbed into the labour market. Actually, holders of phony certificates could find themselves more advantaged in the labour market than those with genuine certificates if they have the right ‘connections.’

We have Investigative Reporter Umar Audu of Daily Nigerian newspaper to thank for the expose that has set off a flurry of measures targeted, as it were, at shutting in horses that may already have bolted out of the stable door. In a December 30, 2023 report, the journalist revealed how, in December 2022, he contacted a syndicate that specialised in milling fake degree certificates, and how the syndicate in six weeks issued him a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication certificate from the Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies, a university in Cotonou, Benin Republic, founded in 2009. Audu took delivery of both the transcript and certificate of Ecole in February 2023 without having put in a formal application to the school or sitting any of its examinations. And when he double-checked on the institution’s website, he found that his purported academic records were officially captured. For the icing, he was able to enroll in the mandatory one-year NYSC scheme with his fake degree despite that he duly served in the same scheme some years earlier with genuine certification. Audu’s report laid bare the illegal dealings by some tertiary institutions in the West coast, and perhaps beyond, which prompted the Nigerian government to slam immediate ban on accreditation and evaluation of degrees from Benin Republic and Togo. A similar ban was in view against institutions in further-flung countries like Uganda and Kenya, as well as neighbouring Niger Republic, according to Education Minister Tahir Mamman. 

Beyond the ban, Nigerian authorities instituted a rash of probes. Only last week, government raised a seven-member inter-ministerial committee to investigate degree milling by foreign and local private universities established within the last 15 years. The Education Minister mandated panel members to, among other things, review the role of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) or their officials in facilitation of recognition and procurement of fake certificates by Nigerian students. Of Nigeria’s 147 private universities, according to National Universities Commission (NUC) records, no fewer than 107 were established in the last 15 years and thus fall within the purview of the probe. Mamman said the panel should interrogate whether the private institutions under probe have in place prescribed facilities, adequate management structure, and adequate funding for programmes among other criteria. While announcing the suspension of evaluation and accreditation of Benin and Togo certificates earlier, government said it had launched an investigation involving the Foreign Affairs and Education ministries in Nigeria and their counterparts in the two Francophone countries, as well as the Department of State Services (DSS) and the NYSC to unearth perpetrators of the degree milling racket. Even the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) opened its own probe by inviting the Daily Nigerian reporter for questioning. And there are other parallel probes.

“Degree racketeers offshore servicing Nigerian students are only symptomatic.”

If you asked me, official response to Audu’s report has been largely knee-jerk, and one gets the feeling government is frantically hitting out to neutralise an enemy it has not even clearly profiled. Certificate racketeers have been at work, operating in cahoots with willing institutions. And they get patronised much of the time by Nigerians seeking to get around challenges encountered in the educational system at home in their quest for certification – that is, excepting Audu who engaged the racketeers purely for investigative purposes. Many of these challenges like poor funding for education, inadequate staffing seed-bedding low standards,  and system instability fall within the remit of government to address; but the challenges are unaddressed and, thereby, provide a nest for racketeers out to exploit Nigerian students desperate for alternatives. Of course, that is not to deny there are Nigerians who are plainly crooked and intentional in their pursuit of dubious certification. These are the ones the Education ministry, in a statement, spoke of as deploying “nefarious means and unconscionable methods to get a degree, with the end objective of getting graduate job opportunities for which they are not qualified.”

But degree racketeers offshore servicing Nigerian students are only symptomatic. A question to ask is why Nigerians, in throngs, opt out of their own country’s educational system to seek degree certification from other countries.  In reaction to the suspension of accreditation of degree certificates from Benin and Togo, the Benin Republic chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) called for restraint by government because the measure would adversely affect those legitimately pursuing their studies in that country’s tertiary institutions. Chapter president,  Ugochukwu Favour, speaking on a television programme, urged that government should crack down only on those found complicit in certificate racketeering. “You cannot because it is happening in one school punish everyone, because it will involve close to 15,000 students in Benin Republic,” he said. There you have it: 15,000 Nigerian students in Benin Republic alone. That is not counting those in Togo, and much less in other countries. It has been argued by authorities, and there’s every reason to believe, that there is no country of the world you won’t find Nigerian students, including Mongolia and Iceland.

Google search revealed that there were 44,195 students from Nigeria who studied in the United Kingdom across educational levels in the 2021-22 academic year – a 107 percentage increase over the previous year. In 2017, the International Educational Exchange data released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) showed that no fewer than 11,710 Nigerian students sought the golden fleece that year in the United States – an uptick of 9.7 percent over 2016. And late in 2019, U.S. Deputy Director, Student and Exchange Visitor Program in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Rachel Canty, disclosed that Nigerians led all Africans studying in her country. “There are over 36,000 students from sub-Saharan Africa studying in the U.S. As of March 2019, there are 16,039 students from Nigeria studying in the United States, with 54 percent (being) male and 46 percent female students. This is an increase of 3,342 students over 12,693 students recorded in November 2018,” she said. Mark it, those figures are far higher today.

Meanwhile, contrary to the trend of mass emigration of Nigerian students, there were less than 2,000 foreign students in total studying across 194 tertiary institutions in Nigeria, according to a survey. A panel – Committee on Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Internationalization – in a 2019 survey, found that there were just 1,856 foreign students studying in Nigerian institutions. Former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, who chaired the panel, noted that Nigeria scored low on the internationalization index. Speaking while making the survey result public in Abuja, Jega said: “In a survey in August 2019 by this committee on tertiary institutions in Nigeria, of the 194 institutions that responded, there were 1,856 foreign students out of a total of 1,132,795 students.” He added: “Foreign students make up 0.18 percent in universities, 0.29 percent in polytechnics and 0.04 percent in colleges of education.” According to him, the total percentage of foreign students in Nigeria’s tertiary education system as at the 2018/2019 session was 0.16 percent.

An inference from the foregoing is that whereas Nigerians are going offshore in droves to pursue certification, there is no commensurate attraction of foreign students by the Nigerian educational system. And it isn’t that the country fairs too badly in the number game. There are currently 52 federal universities, 63 state-owned and 147 private-owned according to NUC data. There are 40 federal polytechnics, 49 state-owned and 76 private ones according to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). The National Commission for Colleges of Education puts the number of colleges presently existing at 219; while there are said to be 70 federal and state-owned colleges of health, and 17  private ones. Meanwhile, lawmakers in the National Assembly (NASS) are mulling creation of at least 32 new universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Whatever it is that makes Nigerian institutions unattractive to both citizens and foreigners is the same that fuels the allure of foreign certification, including for pizza degrees. That is what government should address.