PARADE OF DUBIOUS CREDENTIALS  

Regulators must do more to expose the fraudsters in the system

It is no longer news that many top decision makers in our public services may have conned their way into critical positions without the qualifications they claim. The greater challenge is that this fraud is pervasive in all sectors and across different strata of our society. From seeking admission to applying for jobs, the list of those who parade forged certificates and fake degrees in Nigeria today is long and very disturbing. This menace is aided by the absence of a reliable database, corrupt government officials and dishonest personnel in many of our tertiary institutions.  

Today, there are so many criminals who parade chains of degrees in medicine, who put the lives of many Nigerians at risk daily, and there are others who teach in our universities even without possessing a genuine first degree. Such is the level of decay in the system that when an ordinary Nigerian walks into a hospital, chances are that the ‘doctor’ on duty may just be a glorified ward attendant. From fake pharmacists whose prescriptions are often fatal for hospital patients to fake teachers whose pupils/students are candidates for failure to fake journalists who write to blackmail, it is now  increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake professionals in our country.

There is hardly any batch of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, that fake graduates would not be discovered, although most of the fake certificates are usually from foreign universities, and since there is hardly any due diligence, many are never detected. Three years ago, then Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abubakar Adamu Rasheed revealed that about 100 fake professors were uncovered in our institutions of higher learning during a screening exercise. The outcome of the verification exercise showed that out of 11,996 certificates verified by the commission, 721 certificates were found to have been forged.

For years, the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) was embroiled in scandal over acting Director-General who did not have the requisite qualification for the office he held. While a PhD is the minimum qualification for the position, the man claimed to have a doctorate from a university in Republic of Benin when he did not. But the challenge of fake certificates is not limited to the civil service, it has spread to many of our critical institutions and agencies. In fact, making dubious claims, including faking credentials, seem to be the route to power in the country today. A serving senator once had his election nullified by both High Court and Appeal Court over a fake certificate. Hundreds of other political leaders make dubious academic claims that are never verified.  

 What makes the situation more worrisome is the way fraudsters now con their way into just about any official position with fake credentials. The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) once revealed that six government agencies have personnel with cases of having gained employment with such dubious claims. In the police, armed forces, academia, ministries and government agencies and of course politics, fake credentials are now paraded by many for jobs they are not qualified to undertake.  

Indeed, there is hardly any professional field today where these fraudsters have not invaded. We call on the regulatory authorities, including professional bodies, to put in place measures that will checkmate the antics of these fraudsters. Authorities in the education sector must work with the security agencies to deal with this growing problem that puts a question mark on the integrity of academic qualifications in Nigeria. We also call on the authorities to put in place a mechanism to ensure that those who hold positions of trust possess the credentials they claim.