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Reasons Federal Government Dismisses Civil Servants With Degrees from Togo, Benin Institutions

Published by Tope Fakinlede on December 5th, 2024.

Reasons Federal Government Dismisses Civil Servants With Degrees from Togo, Benin Institutions

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, FRN President

The Federal Government has terminated the employment of several civil servants holding degrees from private universities in Benin Republic and Togo, according to FIRST CLASS GISTS.

The dismissal affects individuals who graduated from these institutions between 2017 and the present.

Segun Imohiosen, Director of Information and Public Relations in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), confirmed the development to one of our reporters on Wednesday.

In August, the Federal Government announced that only eight universities in Togo and Benin Republic were officially accredited to confer degrees to Nigerians. This move followed an undercover investigation where a journalist from Daily Nigerian obtained a degree in just two months from a university in Benin Republic and used it to join the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

As a result, the government imposed a ban on the accreditation of degrees from tertiary institutions in both countries. An investigative committee was also set up to examine degree mills and their activities.

Former Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, disclosed that over 22,500 Nigerians had obtained fraudulent degrees from these institutions. He confirmed that such degrees would be invalidated, noting that the decision was part of an investigative report submitted to the Federal Executive Council regarding degree certificate fraud involving both local and foreign universities.

Mamman emphasized that the cancellation was necessary to protect the country’s reputation, stating that many individuals with fake degrees never even visited the institutions they graduated from but instead obtained their certificates through fraudulent means. He urged both government agencies and the private sector to take similar actions.

While the exact number of affected civil servants remains unclear, sources indicate that the SGF’s Office has sent a memo to all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to enforce the directive.

An anonymous source confirmed that the dismissals were based on recommendations from the inter-ministerial committee tasked with investigating the legitimacy of certificates from these universities.

The source explained, “The SGF’s Office issued instructions to all government agencies to identify and terminate the employment of individuals with degrees from private universities in Benin Republic and Togo obtained after 2017.”

Several agencies, including the NYSC, have already begun executing the directive. Caroline Embu, Director of Information at the NYSC, confirmed that five staff members had been dismissed in line with the SGF’s instructions.