Senator Foster Ogola is now swimming in a certificate scandal. Recently, a confidential report was made using the Leaks.NG platform hinting that the senator, currently representing Bayelsa West senatorial district, has fake credentials from an unaccredited university in Nigeria.
Senator Foster Ogola
“Sen. Foster Ogola has a fake PhD. His official profile on the NASS Website says he has a PhD from GMF Christian University. There is no official site for the university and it is not accredited by the NUC. There is also no research paper or thesis to his name online. Although he got the degree in 2012,” the report alerted.
On his official National Assembly profile, the senator is credited with having a PhD in Christian Leadership from the GMF Christian University Lagos, the same course he reportedly has an M.Sc. in from the Imo State University, Owerri.
We gathered that the federal government has not licenced the GMF Christian University, Lagos, where the senator claims to have earned his PhD from in 2012.
The Director of Corporate Communications of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Ibrahim Yakasai, was contacted on the validity of the institution. “We have never heard of that name”
A copy of the commission’s weekly bulletin provided by Mr Yakasai showed a list of 57 illegal universities operating in the country; GMF Christian University was not among, buttressing the fact that the commission is even not aware of its existence.
The director also said that since 1999, the NUC has approved 74 private universities in the country and ‘’any certificate obtained from the GMF Christian University or any other degree mill will not be recognised by their authority.”
Other discoveries made by Leaks.NG coalition informed that the GMF Christian University still has no website offering information on the institution or its courses and there is no information on the Christian Leadership course the embattled senator purports to have a PhD in.
We reached out to Senator Ogola, who is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information Communication Technology and Cybercrime, to speak on the allegations levelled against him including attending an illegal university and obtaining a fake certificate.
In response, he said: “Kindly clarify for me if Premium Times does exist, to entertain allegations from third parties, whose identities are not mentioned, especially, when they are criminal in nature.”
Rather than answer the questions raised, the lawmaker stated that the allegations could be a product of “mischief makers with a potential to foment distraction from weighty matters of state.”
On the unaccredited GMF Christian University, the senator was asked if there was an exemption from the NUC on the Christian Leadership course which Mr Ogola purportedly has a doctorate degree in.
“When did students or products of universities become accrediting bodies?” the lawmaker said obviously not addressing the question.
In an attempt to verify GMF Christian University’s existence and understand how it operates in Nigeria. We traced the Gospel Missionary Foundation (GMF) Theological University to 165 Isolo road, Cele bus stop, Egbe-Ikotun, Lagos.
It was revealed that the controversial university lies on the first floor of a two-storey building. Besides the one and only lecture room, which was empty at the time of visit, there are about three other rooms serving as offices.
Hope Obioha, the registrar and wife of the president of the university, Daniel Obioha, who claimed to be a professor, received the reporter who went there under the guise of a prospective student. She took the reporter to her office where she introduced him to the university and the courses it offers.
According to the materials given, GMF Christian Theological University was established on May 4, 1988 and is registered by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
It says it seeks to fulfil its commitment to ‘‘individual special ministry calling, through graduate education, professional development and spiritual formation in all its activities including teaching, nurturing, worship, service, research, publication and missions.”
Mr Obioha and his wife established the university. When asked if the NUC has accredited the university, the registrar said that they do not operate like a secular university, hence, the university is not registered under NUC.
She presented the “accreditation certificate” of the university by some international bodies. Checks revealed that all the bodies that gave the debatable accreditation do not have an online presence.
However, one of the materials she released contains the graduating list from 2013 to 2016.
It is worthy to note that 2012 is the year Mr Ogola claims to have obtained his PhD in Christian Leadership.
Additionally, the Christian Leadership course was not reflected in the list of courses offered by the illegal university at doctorate level.
On a second visit to the GMF Christian University on March 13, the centre was empty again as the man who introduced himself as a lecturer said it was examination time.
He said while the full-time students attend lectures on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the part-time students go on Saturdays alone.
He was reluctant to release the list of those who graduated in 2012, but the reporter obtained a Skye bank account of the university in order to pay for the admission process for a “diploma in theology.”
At the end of both visits, we were still unable to establish the veracity of the senator’s claim that he attended the school and has a PhD. in the Christian Leadership.
– Culled from PremiumTimes