- . Charge rent fees ranging from N150,000 to N200,000 for two years
. Collect additional monthly stipends from clients
Nosa Akenzua, Asaba
Unemployed graduates in Edo and Delta states now engage in hiring their degree certificates to other foreign-based Nigerians to secure employment outside the shores of the country, our correspondent has learnt.
It was gathered that these unemployed graduates, who are mostly young products of universities and polytechnics in the country, give out their academic certificates to their friends, relations and others based abroad for fees ranging from N150,000 to N200,000, just to eke out a living with the stipends sent home by these foreign-based ‘clients.’
Our correspondent learnt that the unemployed graduates in the two states usually reach an agreement with their ‘clients’ to work with their degree certificates ‘loaned’ to them for a period of about two years during which they would be paying some monthly stipends into their bank accounts.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that in the past two years, young graduates in the two states had been deeply involved in the illegal act of trading their academic certificates for money with those based abroad.
In Edo State, many of the unemployed graduates told our correspondent that they had been shut out of the 200,000 jobs promised youths in the state by Governor Godwin Obaseki as only those they claimed worked for the governor during the last election in the state were considered for even the menial jobs being provided by the state.
A similar situation, it was learnt, obtained in the neighbouring Delta with the youths in the state accusing the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa-led administration of selectively taking care of only those from the governor’s Ika-speaking areas and highly placed members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party under the state’s youth empowerment programme.
One of the youths involved in the business of exchanging their certificates for money, Lucky Egbema, who also claimed to be an indigene of the Isoko community, told our correspondent in Asaba, “I graduated from the University of Benin since 2007. After my NYSC, I couldn’t get any job. I applied for jobs in many companies to no avail. When I was approached by a friend that his brother abroad wanted to use my certificate, I obliged him for N200,000. I have started business with the money, and I’m now married, instead of doing Yahoo Yahoo business. I don’t care about the implication of loaning out my certificate to those who can use it so long as they can pay for its usage.”
Many others, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described such an illicit deal as lucrative business they can engage in for now to eke out a living since they couldn’t use their certificates to secure any job in Nigeria for now.
According to them, “We are reaping the fruits of our hard academic labour while we were in school. Now, every month we get alert of thousands of naira in our bank accounts. So, we are not regretting our involvement in the deal. How can we graduate from the university and we stay for so many years without jobs? We don’t want to do Yahoo Yahoo. It is our brain that is bringing money into our pockets. There is no cause for alarm because our clients travel abroad to use the certificates to work over there.”
Further investigation revealed that apart from the exchange of degree certificates for money by the unemployed graduates in the two states, many local workers are also not left out of such a deal as they are also involved in the certificate racketeering. It was gathered that many local workers use their unemployed relations’ academic certificates to gain admission into the universities and polytechnics for further studies and even for employment purposes, resulting in the current situation where a lot of people now bear the same first and surnames.
A university don, Prof. Victor Peretemode of the Delta state University, Abraka, described the development as result of failure of those patronising the unemployed graduates involved in the certificate racketeering business to pass prescribed examinations after many attempts in various schools.
He disclosed that DELSU had expelled several of its students after checks revealed they were deeply involved in the use of someone else’s certificates to gain admission into the school.
“We have seen many even in offices and after some time they will do a change of name to their real names. Those we uncovered in our school were expelled immediately and we also ensure that certificates are properly checked,” Peretemode said.
The Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Publicity, Crusoe Osagie, in dismissed allegations by the youths that the governor had failed to provide them jobs as untrue.
Osagie argued that in the last three years, the Governor Obaseki-led administration had provided jobs for the state’s teeming youths, including the construction of earth roads and renovation of various classrooms across the state.
But the Delta state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, said that the state government introduced STEP and YAGEP entrepreneurship for unemployed youths across the state, adding that over 25,000 Deltans had been gainfully employed through the scheme, which he stressed had reduced the suffering of the people in the state in last four years of the Okowa-led administration.
“We have provided enough for the youths and anyone of them involved in the illicit and unlawful activities clearly shows he or she is lazy and cannot be useful to this country, Nigeria,” Aniagwu said.
Meanwhile, the police in Delta State have vowed to bring to book anyone found in certificate racketeering, adding that it had mapped out strategies aimed at ensuring the arrest of suspects.
The state Commissioner of Police, Adeleke Adeyinka, said, “Whatever that has to do with crime cannot thrive in Delta State under my watch and the police will bring the perpetrators to book, especially those involved in certificate racketeering, which is unlawful.”
In a related development, a suya meat seller in the Okwe Quarters in Asaba last Wednesday night used the original certificate issued by the polytechnic in Oko, Anambra State to wrap the grilled meat purchased from him by a customer.
An eyewitness, John Okoh, said that the customer identified as Chukwudi, was shocked when he attempted to unwrap and eat the suya meat he bought for N200,00 and discovered the paper used for wrapping it was the original copy of a Higher National Diploma certificate issued by the Federal Polytechnic, Oko.
He was said to have immediately raised the alarm, which attracted passers-by to the scene where the suya seller, Musa Muhammad, claimed his friend supplied him with the waste papers.
Musa was said to have told them that because he was not educated he could not identify that the paper he used to wrap the suya meat for his customer was the original copy of someone else’s HND certificate.
