The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has described Nigerian students currently enrolled in universities that have been de-listed by the Nigerian government as criminals.
He stated this while speaking on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Wednesday. The education minister disclosed that he had no sympathy for Nigerian students affected by the de-listing of the foreign universities, adding that no Nigerian students should be associated with such institutions.
According to him, “The students that patronize them ( the de-listed institutions) are not victims but criminals because no students from Nigeria have any business going to such places where they go there pay money, disappear and reappear afterwards with what they call qualifications, which are not qualifications at all, I have no sympathy for them instead they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” the minister said.
The position of the Minister comes after The federal government of Nigeria suspended the evaluation and accreditation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo.
The development was announced in a statement on Tuesday, January 2, signed by the spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Education, Augustina Obilor-Duru.
She noted that the suspension is with immediate effect.
The government in the statement, lamented that “some Nigerians deploy nefarious means and unconscionable methods to get a Degree with the end objective of getting graduate job opportunities for which they are not qualified.”
The statement added that the suspension would remain in place pending the outcome of an investigation involving the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education of Nigeria and the two countries, as well as the Department of State Security Services (DSS), and the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).
The action follows the investigative report by Daily Nigerian Newspaper titled “UNDERCOVER: How DAILY NIGERIAN reporter bagged Cotonou varsity degree in 6 weeks”.