A concerned group, the Coalition of Stakeholders in Education (CSE) has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the invalidation of degrees Certificates from universities in Benin Republic and Togo.
According to the affected students, parents and managers of the affected schools, the decision to invalidate Degree certificates
obtained by some Nigerian citizens from some universities in Togo and Benin Republic from 2017 to date has shattered the hope of over 22,000 Nigerian graduates of the institutions as their fate is now hanging in the balance.
Addressing an international press conference in Lagos, leader of the group and President of Nigerian Lecturers in Benin Republic, Gabriel Kona appealed to President Tinubu and the Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman Tahir to revisit the matter and reverse the blanket ban placed on the certificates from higher institutions in the two neighbouring West African nations.
The group that faulted the handpicking and decision to recognise only five public universities in Benin and three in Togo without recognizing any private universities in those nations said that Benin Republic has 95 private universities accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
The leaders; Dr Shittu Sanny, Gabriel Kona, Abiola Daramola and Hodonou Nohunun all faulted the blanket ban by the Nigerian government, saying the hammer should fall on those who attended unaccredited institutions or obtained their certificates through dubious means.
“Reliable sources from the Ministry of Education in Benin informed us that the list of accredited institutions in Benin was given to the inter-ministerial committee that visited them early this year from Nigeria. That same list is downloadable from their official website.
“The Minister’s pronouncement to invalidate these certificates to take effect in retrospect is unjustifiable. Is it not the same ministry that showed parents and students who wanted to study there the list of accredited institutions from where choices were made?
“Is it that the ministry has been misleading Nigerians all these years? Why did the ministry give evaluation to the graduates of these universities in the first place all these years?
“We are compelled to ask if diligent students who studied hard to acquire their credentials from these countries should suffer for the crime of negligible few? Therefore, to punish more for the crime of few is not an option,” they argued.
The aggrieved stakeholders who applauded ongoing efforts to sanitise the education sector in Nigeria by the present administration, argued that punishing many for the crimes of a few is not an option.
“We are requesting that the Nigerian government, as a leading nation in sub- Sahara, will certainly have a big role to play to ensure that the educational system in this part of Africa is revolutionised, hence Benin and Togo as law abiding and progressive nations will also largely support this quest to sanitize our education, we need ourselves to fight the battle not in isolation of one another.
“As we speak, parents, Alumni members and students of these affected countries who are of Nigerian descents are agonizing and confused with myriads of thoughts, we plead with the Nigerian government to kindly do the needful by graciously revoking this pronouncement of ban on already awarded certificates that are already at various of sectors of the Nigerian economy so as not to further worsen the current state of the economy.
“While we are here as stakeholders, we can vouch for Nigerians carrying degree certificates from these two great countries are greatly doing well in their various endeavours. Studying abroad is never a crime until now, we need all parents, guardians and concerned Nigerians home and abroad to appeal to the conscience of our policymakers to seek a more profound way of solving the many problems in the education sector over the years,” the group added.
Some aggrieved students present at the briefing; Adaeze Princess Ugorji, a 400 level Psychology student from
Institute Supreme De Genie civil est De gestion and Silas Jime from Estan University Cotonu appealed to the government to save their future and that of their other colleagues from complete ruin.
