Stella Oduah’s Fraudulent Certificate forgery exposed by Sahara reporters

Stella Oduah

Global conclusions had it, that Nigeria has become a country governed by criminals at all levels, it has become so easy to purchase certificate from foreign climes and bamboozle the undiscerning citizen weighed down by the reigns of corrupt few hijackers, Criminals roams freely and are even protected by gun welding men paid from the sufferers tax and the many loots from which they revel and  run a nation, a country where rulers  do not enforce penalties against crime. The court system seemingly operates as the criminals dictate serving the men in power, in the past a former member of the National assemble Salisu Buhari, forged a Toronto certificate and was forced to resign.  Painfully, there seemed to be several many unknown crooks ruling Nigerians, many of who bought certificates to be relevant
That is why Nigeria is today is widely renown as a lawless country.  Observers believe that only a bloody revolution can clean up Nigeria. Nothing seemed to work in a country of over 200 Million people- where criminals seemingly entirely control the criminal judicial system.

In the same country, many past leaders have been besmirched by scandals of false academic attainments, some were caught and others are covered by fraud

Sahara reporters has successfully exposed the fraud of a serving minister presently protected by what has become the President’s “Body Language”

According to the reports by Sahara reporters New York

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.

 

“[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.