The University of Abuja has signed an agreement with a British company for the production of degree certificates with security features on them in its bid to tackle the forgery of the school’s documents.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Michael Adikwu, disclosed this at a forum of the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
Mr. Adikwu said the production of the certificates by the British firm and subsequent issuance of same to graduating students was part of efforts by the university to tackle the issue of falsification of results.
He said no fewer than 12,000 students of the institution had received their certificates as the university was yet to hold convocation ceremony for graduands in the past six years.
He added that “some of our certificates, I am aware, are being forged in the Federal Capital Territory here.
“You see somebody with a second class lower in his or her statement of result, but when you check the real certificate it’s third class you will see.
“So, we decided that we will screen all certificates and get them ready and we have signed an agreement with a British company to produce certificates that have a lot of security features on it.
“Once you look at it, it looks normal, but if you pass it through ultraviolet light, you will find out that a lot of features – up to seven – are on it.
“So, that‘s why we want to produce these certificates and have a convocation possibly early next year and issue the certificates out”.
The vice chancellor said universities usually give out certificates after convocation, but “UniAbuja had no convocation cereomony in the past six years’’.
Mr. Adikwu refuted reports that Nigerian graduates were not employable because of poor standard of education in the country, saying that the issue should be the lack of job for the graduates.
He said “the issue is that there are no jobs and not that the students are not good.
“When education started in this country in the 1940s, in the 1950s and in the 1960s, clerks were produced for the offices; they were also producing people – may be as interpreters – to interpret in Churches.
“But we are in a more dynamic world and there is no school that teaches most of these practicals in the school; so you will find out that students are not given the jobs.
“They say well our graduates are not employable, that’s not true; the issue is that there are no jobs.
“So, the issue is not that they have not been taught; they have been taught; most things people do are learnt on the job and not in the
classroom.
“No doctor will tell you that he or she became a surgeon in the classroom; you do the theory and then the practical in the field”.
The vice chancellor added that an efficient security system had been put in place to check cultism in the university.
