President Bola Tinubu’s administration, led by Education Minister Tahir Mamman, has strongly criticized people who use fake certificates from some African countries, calling them “thieves” and a “danger” to Nigeria.
In an interview with Channels TV, Mamman shared his concerns about Nigerians with real certificates having to compete with those who have fake ones. He said, “To me, these are thieves; these are a danger to our country because someone is showing a qualification certificate for which they have no knowledge. They might get jobs, even in hospitals, and how would they perform other than possibly harming people?”
Mamman explained that the government has decided to remove both public and private employees who obtained their jobs with fake certificates from countries like the Benin Republic and Togo. He argued that if the countries where these certificates come from do not recognize these institutions as legitimate, Nigeria should not recognize them either.
The education minister also criticized those with fake first-class degrees, saying they unfairly compete with Nigerian graduates who earned their degrees honestly. He pointed out that many of these fake certificates are obtained through corrupt means, with people paying agents to handle the paperwork and immigration, resulting in false high-grade certifications.
The government’s recent actions against certificate forgery come after an investigation revealed that some Nigerians were buying and using fake certificates from Benin Republic universities.
