Presenting fake credentials to get elected for executive/legislative offices or secure appointments for which they are not qualified is not new in Nigeria. And the last 26 years of civil rule has only exacerbated it. Aided by the absence of a reliable database in a society where people make claims that are hardly checked, it has long been established that many of the university degrees being paraded by too many top public officials were obtained from touts at the notorious ‘Oluwole’ in Lagos. But under a new regime that commenced on Monday (6 October 2025), no federal appointment will be confirmed without a National Credential Verification Service (NCVS) clearance certifying the authenticity of academic documents.

According to a recent circular from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, the directive was approved in February this year by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD), a centralised digital platform created to store, manage, preserve, and verify educational records, publications, and credentials from all tiers of the system will provide oversight. “NERD will issue guidance and regulations in consultation with the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Council for Colleges of Education (NCCE),” the circular added. The clearance of any certificate will generate a National Credential Number (NCN) and unique security codes linked to the verified document for record-keeping.

This is a commendable policy that should extend beyond the federal government to all tiers across the country and even the private sector if we are to end this emblem of shame. Of course, the announcement on Tuesday of “the resignation of Geoffrey Uche Nnaji, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, following some allegations against him,” had nothing to do with NERD or the new circular. But the development has brought the policy into sharp focus. Nnaji had claimed to be a graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) but the vice chancellor, Prof Simon Ortuanya, told Premium Times that the institution “did not and could not have issued” the certificate Nnaji presented to the Senate for his confirmation hearing. His National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate was also confirmed to be dodgy. This scandal raises serious questions about the integrity of the so-called security screening always conducted by the State Security Service (SSS) with much noise and drama before such appointments are announced or confirmed.

However, while Nnaji may have lost his job for breaking the ‘eleventh commandment’ (Thou Shall Not Get Caught), he is just one among many people in our public space whose academic credentials are dubious. Last year, a monarch-elect in Ekiti State was ordered to be detained by a Federal High Court for forging a University of Ibadan and NYSC discharge certificates, both of which he had earlier used to secure a job at the University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti. An acting director-general at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) was found to have secured his position with a forged PhD certificate. To compound the challenge, the revelation from a recent case in London over the property of a deceased retired army General indicates that many of our data collection centres have been compromised. And until these criminal syndicates are dismantled, NERD may just be validating fraud.

In October 2023, following discrepancies found on the list of graduates forwarded to the NYSC headquarters, authorities at the University of Calabar admitted that some of the “certificates purportedly from our university are fake.” At the end of their internal process, no fewer than 178 fake graduates were believed to have obtained UNN degree certificates. One of those ‘graduates’ turned out to be a bread seller! Although the university’s Data Entry Officer, Obi Endurance, was reportedly arrested, there is nothing to suggest that he (or anybody else for that matter) has been held accountable for the crime. If that can happen in a respected federal university, one can only imagine the situation in many of the ramshackle private universities that populate the country.

As I wrote in the aftermath of the UNN scandal, our most sacrosanct institutions have been invaded by a national culture of fraud. In religion, charlatans have crowned themselves Pastors, Bishops, Imams, General Overseers etc. In the hospitals, patients are at the mercy of fake doctors and pharmacists whose prescriptions are often fatal. In the construction industry, quacks have taken over, causing buildings to collapse after mere drizzle. In academia, there is an epidemic of ‘professors’ who disseminate ignorance to unsuspecting students. But, as I also argued, the wellspring seems to be the political realm.

In a moral no-man’s-land with neither standards nor measures, the present world of universal fraud for which our country is becoming increasingly notorious appears logical. Apart from electing certified crooks into critical public offices, the appointment of those who parade ‘Oluwole’ certificates has also become the order of the day. That nobody is sure of the genuineness of certificates being paraded by public office holders in our country is already becoming a problem for honest Nigerians at home and abroad. We are all tarred with the same brush due to the antics of a few unscrupulous individuals and their collaborators within the system. And we cannot continue like this.

In a status obsessed society where people with zero net worth (and questionable means of livelihood) go by the prefix ‘Billionaire this and that’ and every semi-literate politician is now a ‘Dr somebody’, it is no surprise that many forge certificates. But these are mere symptoms of the crisis of values that bedevil our country today. And to the extent that development cannot happen in a society where forging academic credentials becomes the norm, we must change this sordid narrative in Nigeria, as we wait to see the effects of NERD.

Photographs, Memories and Regrets

‘Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words.’ That immortal admonition by Arthur Brisbane, a 20th century Australian newspaper editor in 1911, is one of my favourite quotes. But to the extent that you can only use what you have, it is obvious I don’t always keep my own counsel. That much became evident when, a few weeks ago, the children of the late Chief Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo asked that I send them photographs that me and immediate family members took with their father who was my guardian for more than four decades. The only photograph I could immediately find was the one my son, Korede, sent in June when the death was announced. It was taken four years ago at the 80th birthday of the deceased and only he, Korede and my wife were in the photograph. Though I was also at the family get-together!

Even if we discount the early years in Ilorin and Lagos in the late eighties and nineties, this was a man I visited at least once a week in Abuja since I moved here in 2007 (in my adult life) and who also visited me at home a few times. Yet, I couldn’t find a single photograph we took together. The point is that except for compulsory group photographs or requests from other people, I don’t go out of my way to snap pictures. I have been fortunate to travel to several countries where I visited interesting places and was privileged to have met important people. In any of those places or encounters, I never bothered with photographs. Not as editor at THISDAY. And certainly not as presidential spokesman. I don’t even have a single photograph in my mobile phone gallery! I know that sounds queer, but in a moment of reflection a few weeks ago, everything came back.

Right from my university days at Ife, I loved photography and had a camera. So, quite naturally, I had a good collection of photographs. Then, in 1994, after the African Concord magazine (where I was working at the time) was proscribed by the late General Sani Abacha, I left my Abuja base for Lagos, keeping most of my personal effects with a colleague. While in Lagos, I heard that he had an accident on the road to Kubwa and died. By the time I returned to Abuja, his family had come to pack all his personal effects. Including my photo albums! How do you go to the family of a deceased friend to ask for photo albums? In fact, for years, anytime I remembered those albums, I always felt guilty, asking whether they were more important than my friend who died. Without realizing it, I lost interest in photography and taking photographs.

The memory of the lost albums came back when I was searching for any photograph I might have taken with the late Adebayo. And it was during this process that I located where my aversion for photographs came from. Then, I remembered that the deceased was the ‘father of the day’ at the public presentation of my book, ‘Against the Run of Play: How an Incumbent President was Defeated in Nigeria’ in April 2017. In the days preceding the event, Chairman of Caverton Group, Mr Remi Makanjuola had called to ask whether I made provision for a photographer. I told him that many press photographers would be there. He said he would send a professional photographer to cover it for me. And he did. A few weeks later, the photographer sent me two big albums. As I went through the collections three weeks ago, not only were there many photographs of me and the late Adebayo but also with many important dignitaries at the event, some that I didn’t even remember attending. There are also some who were there but have passed away, leaving cherished memories. It shows the significance of photographs.

Meanwhile, the funeral rites of the late Adebayo, who will be buried this Saturday in Kwara State, started in Abuja on Tuesday with a ‘Night of Tributes’. At the event, former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki—who also governed Kwara State for eight years—and former Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari paid glowing tributes to the deceased. Important dignitaries who attended included Hon Emeka Ihedioha, Mr Jimi Agbaje, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, Mr Frank Nweke Jnr, Mr Jani Ibrahim, Mrs Bola Shagaya, Mr Shittu Mohammed, Mr Seyi Tinubu, Mr Seyi Adekunle (Vodi), Mr Adebowale Olujimi (and wife, Gbesoye), as well as Senators Dayo Adeyeye, Dino Melaye, Kareem Sunday and several others. In his word of exhortation, Bishop David Abioye challenged the audience to always ask themselves, “What will I be remembered for?”

I must commend the children and their spouses—Mrs Bukuonla Ajayi and Dotun, Mrs Bimbola Adewoye and Dayo, Mrs Mosunmola Jegede and Stanley, Mrs Oloruntoyosi Thomas and Deolu as well as Mr Cornelius Oluwasegun Adebayo and Ebun—for organizing such a brilliant event. While some family members and friends left for Ilorin yesterday, the rest of us will join them today as we prepare to bid farewell to a wonderful father, grandfather and mentor.

But back to the main issue here. In recent weeks, I have had to value the thoughtfulness of Mr Makanjuola in providing that photographer who covered the public presentation of my book eight years ago. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had any photograph to memorialise my association with the late C.O. Adebayo. As I wrote following his passage in June (C.O. Adebayo: A Father, A Mentor – THISDAYLIVE), he and his wife, Elizabeth Funmilayo (now also of blessed memory) played such a critical role in my life that I must properly document in future. But this experience has also taught me a significant lesson: In the hourglass of fleeting time, a photograph not taken at the right moment is a memory of an opportunity lost forever. While there is no way to recapture the past, I have resolved that henceforth, I would begin to take photographs.

Since that has always been a source of friction in my family, my October resolution should be delightful news to my wife and children. (This Day)