The Federal Government has fired civil servants with degrees from private tertiary institutions in the Benin Republic and Togo.
The directive affects federal workers who graduated from the institutions from 2017 to date.
Segun Imohiosen, Director of Information and Public Relations in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, confirmed the development on Wednesday.
In August, the Federal Government announced that only eight universities in Togo and the Benin Republic had been accredited to award degrees to Nigerian students.
This followed an undercover investigation report in which a Daily Nigerian journalist earned a degree from a university in the Benin Republic in two months and used it to participate in the National Youth Service Corps program.
Following the report, the government prohibited the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from tertiary institutions in the Benin Republic and Togo.
The federal government also established an interministerial investigative committee on degree certificate milling to investigate the activities of certificate millers.
Tahir Mamman, then Minister of Education, revealed that over 22,500 Nigerians obtained fake degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo, which would be cancelled.
This was part of a report submitted to the Federal Executive Council by an investigative committee to investigate degree certificate racketeering by foreign and local universities in Nigeria.
He emphasised that the Federal Government’s decision to invalidate the approximately 22,500 credentials granted to Nigerians by some “fake” colleges in the two francophone countries would stand.
Mamman claimed that the decision to invalidate the degrees was not severe because Nigerians who earned degree certificates from such higher schools harmed the country’s reputation.
He said, “Most of those parading the fake certificates didn’t even leave the shores of Nigeria but got their certificates through racketeering in collaboration with government officials at home and abroad.
“The fake universities capitalised on the gullibility of Nigerians patronising such fake schools. The Federal Government, through the offices of the Head of Civil Service and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, would fish out those in the government’s employment with such fake certificates. I also urge the private sector to follow suit.”
Although the exact number of impacted civil officials could not be determined, it was learnt that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (Cabinet Affairs) had issued a note to all ministries, departments, and agencies to carry out the order.
A source, who requested anonymity because she was not permitted to speak on the subject, said that the affected employees were fired based on the inter-ministerial committee’s recommendation.
The official stated, “There was a letter from the SGF cabinet affairs directing all ministries, departments, and agencies of government to identify and terminate the appointments of workers employed with certificates obtained from the private universities in the Republic of Benin and Togo from 2017 to date.
“The decision is part of the recommendations of the committee set up to investigate the certificates of people who graduated from the universities.”
It was also gathered that some agencies, like the National Youth Services Corps, NYSC, have commenced the implementation of the directive.
Caroline Embu, the NYSC Director of Information, confirmed to our correspondent that five members of staff had been sacked in line with the SGF’s directive.
She said, “Five members of staff were affected by the directive contained in the letter from the office of the SGF. No more.”
