The Tinubu Media Volunteers (TMV) has backed the decision of the federal government to sack civil servants in ministries, departments, and agencies who obtained fake degrees from some private universities in the Benin Republic and Togo.
The group, in a statement signed by Mr Chukwudi Enekwechi, its Chairman and Mr Shedrach Sunday, Secretary, said the move was in line with the anti-corruption posture of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
“We note with sadness that most of the universities in question do not have even the licence or accreditation from their host or originating countries.
“It is also reprehensible that some Nigerians will claim to have obtained academic degrees knowing the same to be false and manoeuvre their ways into the Nigerian civil service.
“For us, the question is what quality of service will they offer in their places of work? We want to state without equivocation that acquiring Golden Fleece should follow a rigorous process for which the academic environment is well-known,” said TMV.
It stated that unscrupulous Nigerians, in a bid to gain undue advantage in the public service, rushed to Benin Republic and Togo to acquire all kinds of fake degrees, sometimes within a space of six months or one year.
“We, therefore, applaud the decision to fire such degree holders by the federal government, as it falls within the purview of President Tinubu administration’s policy to fight corruption in all its ramifications.
“This is a clear indication that it is only a government that is concerned with the country’s quality of education and the future of our children that will address the problems of fake university degrees frontally.
“In our view, what the Tinubu administration has done is to sanitise our educational system and subject academic credentials to rigorous scrutiny and credibility,” continued the statement.
According to the group, unless the menace is tackled, the country will be inundated with tainted academic credentials that will undermine the plan of the Tinubu administration to grow Nigeria to a one trillion dollar economy.
“The vision of Mr President for Nigeria to attain a one trillion dollar economy can not be achieved without a knowledge-based civil service,” said TMV
It also urged the authorities to put the necessary machinery in motion to ensure that individuals found to have engaged in such nefarious activities were penalised to avoid future recurrence. (NAN)