The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has said that it has uncovered 3,000 fake graduates in possession of illegal certificates across the country.
This revelation was made by the Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, in a report published in the board’s bulletin.
Oloyede disclosed that those involved in this fraudulent activity had never set foot in a classroom.
He made these comments during a meeting with the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State Universities in Nigeria (COPSUN) at the National Headquarters in Bwari, Abuja.
The registrar condemned the act of illegal admissions, stating that such practices are a source of embarrassment for the country.
The bulletin read, “Some ‘graduates’ had never entered the four walls of a university owing to the endemic corruption in the system but the board had documented over 3,000 of such cases.
“Illegal admission of candidates into tertiary institutions in the country is an embarrassment and a disservice to the nation.”
The registrar, therefore, charged COPSUN to ensure that they clamp down on underhand admissions.
The House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education had previously ordered JAMB in December 2023 to present a list of tertiary institutions involved in irregular and illegal admissions.
The examination body had earlier warned candidates to desist from accepting admissions offered by such institutions without full academic participation.
In the statement titled “Cessation of illegal/irregular admission,” JAMB reiterated that all applications for admissions to first degree, national diploma, national innovation diploma, and the Nigeria certificate in education into full-time, distance learning, part-time, outreach, sandwich, etc. must be processed only through JAMB.
During the third matriculation ceremony at Thomas Adewumi University in Kwara State, Oloyede, represented by Assistant Director Ganiyu Yahaya, noted the importance of CAPS.
He said, “For any admission into tertiary institutions, it has to be done through CAPS which is on the JAMB portal.
“Any admission whatsoever that is outside the CAPS irrespective of the institution, is illegal. And I think this point is very important.”
JAMB also warned candidates who opt for illegal admissions that they would face severe consequences.
It would be recalled that Oloyede, in 2021, raised an alarm and warned against offering admissions to applicants by higher institutions outside CAPS.
JAMB said that apart from distorting the statistics of enrollment in the nation’s tertiary institutions, which it noted is required for national planning and development strategies, the conduct is also “a violation of ministerial directives on education policy.”
Oloyede, speaking at a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja, stated that despite repeated warnings against such behaviour, Nigerian tertiary institutions offered a total of 706,189 ‘illegal’ admissions across universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and monotechnics between 2017 and 2020.
According to Oloyede, a total of 114 degree-awarding institutions, including universities and colleges of education that are affiliated with them, conducted 67,795 ‘illegal’ admissions within the period.
He added that a total of 137 National Diploma (ND) certificates awarded to institutions such as polytechnics and schools of health technologies offered a total of 142,818 ‘illegal’ admissions within the three years, while 37 institutions that are categorised as mono-technics offered 5,678 ‘illegal’ admissions.
The JAMB registrar said, “In 2017, the Board introduced the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) as a flowchart to ensure quality control, transparency and credibility of admissions. Among other reasons, it was also meant to completely eliminate human interference, which invariably led to abuse, in the processing of admissions into the nation’s tertiary institutions.
“The system allows institutions to only admit candidates that meet the requirements as prescribed by individual institutional proprietors and academic Boards/ Senates. The process entails: initiation of the admission of a candidate by the institutional admissions officer after having confirmed the satisfaction of the set criteria; recommendation of the candidate by the head of the institution; approval of the admission by JAMB; acceptance of the admission by the candidate; and printing of the admission letter by the candidate.
“All these are done without hassles or encumbrances. Any process outside this scheme is illegitimate and it renders the admission process null, void, and ultra vires. It is rather disappointing that some institutions continue to defy this decision of the National Policy Meeting, ably chaired by the Honourable Minister of Education, that CAPS is the only platform for processing admissions to the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.”
According to Oloyede’s presentation, the top five universities with the highest number of ‘illegal’ admissions offered within the period are the universities of Jos, Plateau State, with 7,600 cases; Benue State University, Makurdi, with 6,161 cases; Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, with 5,669 cases; Kwara State University, Malete, with 4,281 cases; and Novena University, Delta State, with 3,432 cases.
Among the ND certificate awarding institutions, the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, topped the chart with a total of 45,471 cases within three years, and it is closely followed by Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, with 37,828 cases and Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, with 30,856 cases within the same period.
Others are the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, and the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, Nasarawa State with 24,335 and 24,335 respectively.
