Stella Oduah, Nigeria’s Minister of
Aviation who is embroiled in a scandal of towering proportions in the ministry,
faces new integrity questions as her Masters’ degree has been challenged by the
United States school which supposedly awarded it.
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 SaharaReporters 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 Provost Vice President of
Academic Affairs, and the Vice President of Institutional Development said in response
to our inquiries, “We don’t offer any graduate programs here.”
Similarly, the school’s website
states: “Saint Paul's College is accredited by the Commission of Colleges of
the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate [bachelor’s]
degrees.” There is no mention of graduate degrees.
The Minister’s documentation shows she received an undergraduate degree in accounting from the college in 1982, but Dr. Claud Flythe, St. Paul’s current president, could neither confirm nor deny this during a phone conversation with SaharaReporters. Further verification with the Office of Alumni Affairs is also currently impossible, the school said, because the college has been closed since June 2013 to loss of its accreditation.
The Minister’s documentation shows she received an undergraduate degree in accounting from the college in 1982, but Dr. Claud Flythe, St. Paul’s current president, could neither confirm nor deny this during a phone conversation with SaharaReporters. Further verification with the Office of Alumni Affairs is also currently impossible, the school said, because the college has been closed since June 2013 to loss of its accreditation.
“[Oduah] realized very early in life
the indispensability of a sound education in her growth plans in life and
therefore pursued her education with all diligence and sense of purpose,” her
documents claimed, adding that a determination “to have the best education at the
highest level” prompted her stay at the Virginia college in 1983 for the MBA
programme.
As her public relations machinery
marched on, in December 2012 The Sun newspaper published an article headlined
“Stella Oduah: An Amazon of transformation,” which lauded her “MBA from St
Paul’s College, Lawrenceville Virginia USA.” The story also praised her
for being an official who brought her “rich educational background to bear on
the aviation sector by automating revenue centers in all the agencies and parastatals
to boost their revenue profile and enhance transparency and accountability in
the system.”
In October, SaharaReporters broke
the story that Mrs. Oduah, a former campaign manager for President Goodluck
Jonathan, purchased two bulletproof BMW cars worth $ 1.6 Million (N255m)
through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, for her own use.
Following an investigation, the
House of Representatives Committee on Aviation dismissed the Minister’s pleas
of innocence and all her rebuttals during her testimony. The committee’s
report, which was subsequently adopted by the House, declared that no budgetary
appropriation had been made for the purchase of the cars, and that the NCAA
proposal for their purchase was rejected.
President Jonathan also set up a
three-member administrative panel to investigate the matter, but he immediately
travelled out of the country with Mrs. Oduah and Colonel Dasuki, the National
Security Adviser who was to serve as a member of the panel. Not only did
the panel submit its report much later than the two weeks it was given for the
assignment, Mr. Jonathan has refused to release its report.
Mrs. Oduah’s new certificate
questions are certain to feed into national concern about her credibility as an
elected official, but also about Mr. Jonathan’s credibility, and about the
nation’s security apparatus which verifies official documents offered to the
Senate for official nominations.
If Mrs. Oduah deliberately deceived
the Senate, it remains to be seen if the Upper House will be sufficiently motivated
to take up the matter with the Executive.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s aviation
industry continues to face a massive challenge, with struggling airports and
airlines, as well as financial and administrative pitfalls that hinder
expansion and development.
Courtesy:- SAHARA REPORTER
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