Stella Oduah,
Nigeria’s minister of aviation faces a fresh integrity scrutiny over her claim
that she obtained an MBA degree from an American university.
A
Saharareporters report today said her claim has been punctured 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.”
SaharaReporters
similarly broke in October, 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.
The House
of Representatives, after a probe of the scandalous purchase, has asked
President Jonathan to ‘review her status’ as minister, another way of saying
that she should be sacked.
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