The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in Benin Republic have raised alarm that not less than 15,000 Nigerian students who are currently studying in Benin would be affected by the Nigerian government position on the suspension of the evaluation and accreditation of certificates from universities in Benin and Togo Republics.
Penpushing reports that President of the association Ugochukwu Favour, made this known during an interview and appealed to the Nigerian government to reconsider its position in the interest of the genuine students and graduates from the institutions.
The students leader pleaded that the Nigerian government shouldn’t punish all students studying in Benin Republic over what he described as the crime committed by a single institution, but he did not elaborate on the source of the data he relied on.
“As the President of the association in Benin Republic, we have constituted a committee to probe into the matter and we will make sure we bring those involved in the scandal to book and face the consequences of their actions. I have not validated if it has been happening for a long time. This is just what just came out on social media and we are still trying to find out how long it has been happening,” he added.
Penpushing further reports that in a related development the Director of Press for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Eddy Megwa, said the universities in Cameroon, Togo, among others, need to go through tests to make sure that the students coming from their institutions are graduates before being enrolled into National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
The Director explained that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has ensured that the input of Nigeria’s National Identity Number (NIN) is also part of the registration processes so that if a person wants to register multiple times the system will fish him or her out.
“We also have the intention of collaborating with the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to ensure that they are doing their job. So the process of helping the Nigerian government by way of having their passport stamped in that process will be a thing of the past. We are synergising with other organisations and also doing some other internal control measures so that issues like this will not happen again’, he said
Penpushing also reports Megwa pointed out that the establishment had consistently complained over the quality of graduates from both Benin and Togo Republics, and other countries., adding that apart from listing the measures put in place by the authorities to checkmate corruption and fake certificates by students, noted that it is not the organisation’s mandate to test and verify the authenticity of graduates from higher institutions.
The Director of Press for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) said the establishment relies on the approved lists of graduands by the Senate of each university as a condition for eligibility for participation in the scheme, among other conditions.
‘When we interface with these students, we have discovered that they can’t write a simple sentence, let alone speak it. The universities too need to intervene in cases like this and we also need to sanitise our process to ensure that the people we are enrolling need to be worthy,” he said.
Penpushing reports that Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman in his reaction on Wednesday assured that the government would review the operations of the various ministries and agencies responsible for recognition of accredited degrees from outside the country, stressing that the ministry is working on its internal control mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability.
‘For instance, if a particular institution or operator has been operating, say in the last 10 years, we will check if we can get records of Nigerians who attended that institution’, the education ministry minister said.
Penpushing further reports that Mamman equally pointed out that the Ministry of Educations is not stopping at those two countries alone, adding that the reports at his disposal extend to many other countries.
‘It extends to many countries, Western Africa, Central Africa, and all that of course. We’re not going on a voyage of discovery, but we (will) do everything possible to ensure we get the necessary information,” he said.
Penpushing also reports that it is recalled that the Nigerian government recently announced the decision to suspend evaluation and accreditation of courses being run by universities of Benin and Togo following an investigative report which uncovered dubious degree issued by a university from Benin Republic.
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