Nigerian Journalist Uncovers Cotonou University Selling Degrees, Graduating Students in 6Weeks
The sad reality of our educational sector and the rot of many years has taken its toll at the long-run. When we were producing graduates who are spending less than a year to acquire a degree we didn’t check, until it became 6weeks.
Thanks to the investigative journalistic prowess and bravery of Umar Audu, a Nigerian journalist working with Daily Nigerian Newspapers who went undercover as a student into one of the numerous syndicate Universities selling ‘weekly’ and ‘monthly’ degrees in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
“This certificate will be delivered to you just like you ordered for a pizza or something and you give them your location and it is delivered to you. That was what motivated me to conduct this investigation,”
“We have done a similar investigation in the past in 2018, which led to the government taking certain decisions. These things keep going on despite pronouncements by the Federal Government.”
According to Umar Audu, he never stepped foot outside the shores of Nigeria when this investigation was ongoing; “I never travelled out of Nigeria during this investigation.”
The certificate issued to Audu showed that the reporter started the programme in 2018 and graduated on September 5, 2022. The certificate and transcript bore the authentic scan code of Ecole Superieure de Gestion et de Technologies, ESGT, Benin Republic and it came at an affordable rate.
He thereafter used the fake certificate to participate successfully in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme without being detected. This menace is among many others the Federal Government is now confronting head-on which led to the suspension of every Degree certificate from Benin Republic and Togo.
