I look forward to a time that we won’t be fooled again by our leaders, when merit will be the order of the day and there won’t be hiding places for our corrupt leaders.
Princess Stella Oduah, the embattled aviation minister is still battling with the 255 million naira armoured vehicle scandal. And before we say Jack Robinson again, Sahara Reporters published details of an investigation into her purported degree, claiming that her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from St. Paul’s College Lawrenceville, Virginia, United State of America was false.
According to the report, Mrs Oduah claimed that she stayed back at St. Paul’s College Lawrenceville, Virginia, United States after her first degree in 1982 and obtained her MBA in 1983. Her resume, which she presented to the Senate as a ministerial nominee in 2011, indicated she obtained a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from St. Paul’s College Lawrenceville, Virginia, United States.
But Sahara Reporters has learned from the President of the college that it has never in its 125-year history had a graduate school or graduate program.
The embattled aviation minister is yet to issue out a statement to deny the allegations, but further checks by Premium Times reveals that the embattled Minister of Aviation and her associates have spent the last several hours scrambling to clean up the minister’s biographies on the Internet, following allegations that she lied about her academic qualifications. Princess Stella Oduah’s biography on Aviation ministry website is now without reference to St. Paul’s College.
This incidence is not new in the political landscape of the country. Many of our leaders are claiming to have certificates which they have not been awarded. In 1999, the then speaker of the House of Representative, Mr Salisu Buhari was forced to resign his position as the speaker when it was learnt that the degree from Toronto which he claimed to have obtained is false. Similarly, in Nigeria, a sitting governor was accused of forging O’Level result while another then deputy governor who alleged to have attended a secondary school was found to be lying. But at the end of the day, it was like a case of the more we look, the less we see.
Why on earth will an elected public officer claim to have a certificate which he or she has not sat for? These are the people that the young ones look up to as role models. Why will one claim to have a a questionable certificate from a foreign university and we’ll still keep celebrating them? What has happened to the universities in Nigeria? Why is it that if someone has not claimed to have attended a foreign university, we won’t accord respect to them?
Take away the industrial strikes and some little abnormalities form the Nigerian university system, foreign universities are not really better than the one we have in this country. During my undergraduate days, some of my friends used to say that anyone that could struggle to make a second class upper or lower in a Nigerian university will conveniently make a first class in a foreign university because of all the challenges an average student will pass through in a public university before graduating.
What I’m trying to say is that we’ve had enough of being deceived by our elected leaders that they are possessing a foreign degree. That should not place them higher above someone that studied in a Nigerian university.
Though, according to Nigerian constitution, someone is not guilty until proven by a competent law court. But do we need a court to convict someone who has lied about her certificates? I won’t be surprised if nothing comes out of this issue like other issues that have been swept under the carpet.
But we need to come to that stage in this country where someone who has studied abroad will not be regarded above someone who has studied in Nigeria. We should not be fooled by a university degree from Toronto again. Henceforth, all politicians vying for elective posts should have their credentials verified by competent authorities before standing for election.
No comments:
Post a Comment