Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, a former Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), claims that Francophone West African countries benefit from the fake certificates issued to Nigerians.
On Tuesday, Ramon-Yusuf made this accusation during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
His accusation comes after the Nigerian government suspended accreditation and examination of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo.
The ban came after the Federal Government announced on Tuesday a study showing how a degree was obtained from a university in the Benin Republic in less than two months.
According to the former secretary of the NUC, “many of these francophone countries have benefited so much from the dubious degrees they give to Nigerians, and that is why Africa cannot achieve the same level of mobility that people enjoy in Europe under the Erasmus program.”
According to him, Africa pioneered certificate mobility and mutual recognition before the Europeans but has stalled due to education corruption in francophone countries.
He insisted that Nigerians with dubious diplomas from francophone nations are not victims, explaining that they chose that route because admission to Nigerian universities is difficult.
Ramon-Yusuf said, “There is no victim; all those people with these certificates are clear-headed crooks who knew what they were paying for because some of them are people who cannot pass the UTME, and some do not have five O-level credits.
“So they go shopping for these bogus institutions where they get their bogus qualifications from.”
In addition to the suspension, Ramon-Yusuf stated that the Nigerian government must do more than simply suspend the certificates from these two nations, as this is not the first time the issue has arisen.
He said, “We need to do more than that because this is not the first time this matter has come to the fore. Now, we need to do something different.
“Many of these francophone countries don’t have national quality assurance agencies,” he added.
The former NUC secretary also requested that the NUC be included in the committee formed by the Federal Government to investigate the incident, since it was the statutory agency in charge of ensuring the quality of university education in Nigeria.
