Recent investigative reports by Premium Times have once again exposed the deep rooted plague of fake academic certificates and honours that continues to undermine Nigeria’s educational integrity and public trust. The newspaper’s five month examination of Anthony Kila, a well known social and media commentator who served as pro chancellor of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, revealed that he had falsified not only a professorial title but also a string of claimed bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral qualifications from institutions in the United Kingdom and Italy. Universities contacted by the newspaper either disowned the claims outright or confirmed that the programmes he listed had never been offered in the periods he asserted. The institution suspended him, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has opened a probe. The case is particularly striking because Kila was a frequent voice on Nigerian television and in the press, where audiences had long accepted his academic standing at face value.
This is far from an isolated incident. In 1999, barely months into the Fourth Republic, Salisu Buhari resigned as Speaker of the House of Representatives after it emerged that he had claimed a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Toronto, which held no record of his attendance or graduation, while also falsifying his age. He was later convicted of forgery and perjury. The “Toronto certificate” saga set a pattern that has repeated across successive governments. Ministers screened and cleared by security agencies, and later sworn into federal cabinets, have subsequently been found to have presented forged credentials. As recently as October 2025, Premium Times published a two year investigation showing that Uche Geoffrey Nnaji, then Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, had submitted a forged degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an inconsistent NYSC certificate. The university confirmed he was admitted in 1981 but never completed his studies. He resigned, was later arrested by the ICPC in 2026, and has been arraigned on related charges while pleading not guilty. For the 2027 Enugu governorship, he submitted only WAEC results.
Even the current President of Nigeria has faced long standing questions about his academic history. Claims that he attended Government College, Ibadan, during years when alumni records and school authorities have not corroborated his presence remain part of the public record. He also claimed to have graduated from Government College, Lagos, in 1970, a date that has been widely noted as problematic because the school was established around 1974. Earlier assertions about primary schooling and doubts surrounding aspects of his Chicago documentation have similarly persisted. He is not alone. Senator Foster Ogola of Bayelsa West listed a PhD in Christian Leadership from an institution the National Universities Commission described as unlicensed and unrecognised. Senator Uche Ekwunife has listed a PhD from Atlantic International University, widely regarded as an unaccredited degree mill. Yakubu Adamu, a former Bauchi governorship candidate, claimed a doctorate from an institution in Cameroon that was not authorised to award such degrees and later dropped the claim from his INEC submission.
A parallel and equally corrosive practice is the acquisition of honorary doctorates, often from unrecognised or lightly regulated institutions both inside and outside Nigeria. The craze has been so widespread among politicians and other public figures that the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, secured Federal Executive Council approval in May 2026 for guidelines that prohibit recipients from prefixing “Dr” to their names or appending PhD. Misrepresentation of an honorary award as an earned doctorate is now to be treated as academic fraud. Nigerian universities are restricted in the categories of honorary degrees they may confer, and institutions without active PhD programmes are barred from awarding them at all. The policy is a necessary corrective, yet it does not address honorary titles obtained from foreign degree mills that remain outside the National Universities Commission’s direct control.
Why individuals of means and influence continue to risk exposure for fabricated credentials is not fully clear. Status anxiety in a society that equates titles with competence and moral worth is one plausible driver. A forged or honorary doctorate can open doors to political office, corporate boards, media platforms and social prestige that genuine effort might not immediately secure. Weak verification by the Department of State Services, the National Youth Service Corps and appointing authorities has allowed such documents to circulate for years. The cumulative effect has been to devalue legitimate Nigerian degrees, discourage honest scholars and damage the country’s academic reputation abroad.
Curbing the menace requires more than individual resignations or occasional prosecutions. A national database of verified academic qualifications earned by Nigerians at home and overseas, to which universities and polytechnics are legally obliged to submit graduate records, would allow public institutions, employers and electoral bodies to check claims quickly and cheaply. Mandatory independent verification of all certificates submitted for high public office, with clear criminal consequences for false declarations, should become standard. Institutions that knowingly confer or recognise bogus honours must face sanctions. Above all, Nigeria needs a cultural shift that prizes competence and integrity over the mere accumulation of titles. Until that happens, investigative journalism of the kind Premium Times has pursued will remain one of the few reliable checks on a practice that continues to erode the foundations of public trust.
By A.Ikechukwu
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