According to Sahara reporters, 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 the President of the college said 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. 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,it was widely reported 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.
Another twist in Oduahgate.
ReplyDeletelol.... hahahhahahahahahahah
ReplyDeleteI think that Saharareporters should publish her resume already. That's their only proof. Everything else is hear say.
ReplyDeleteI think that Saharareporters should publish her resume already. That's their only proof. Everything else is hear say.
ReplyDeleteSo?
ReplyDeleteOya go collect the certificate abeg make we return am rest the matter. Maybe she can proceed to Noun to ratify it. Abeg leave the woman make she concentrate do her work biko. Degree ko.
ReplyDeleteWhich work?
Deleteno she ought not be left alone to do work for which she is not a fit and proper person...............we require credible folk at the helm and not folk who will continue to make us a laughing stock or the subject of mirth by right thinking people on the global scale
ReplyDeleteRight thinking men like who? Please. Check her records. Like certificates get work done.
ReplyDeleteHi Eric, Please leave right-thinking people and if you have time go to www.nairaland.com & enjoy the comic relief. Nigeria and Nigerians is an interesting piece of drama.
ReplyDeleteFor the records, I do not support or justify lying or stealing by both the man in power and he that claims to be opposing him in my interest. I also do not support bullying in any form whether it is verbal or physical. If you feel you have anything on any public official, please do the right thing, follow due process and go to court or ICPC or whoever. If you are not patient enough to do things the right way, then you cannot shout when the other party also uses the same approach. We have to patiently build our institutions or we will all end up in an animal farm. We need to put behind us the days of impeaching a governor with 12 legislators out of 30 when the constitution says two-thirds majority just because the press and public opinion says they are corrupt.
Well worded Kingsley. Very apt.
DeleteThen you need a new set of facts. If you believe you have such facts you can sue frankly but until then ,
ReplyDeleteEh!?
ReplyDeleteIf she claims she was awarded a certificate by an institution and the institution disowns that claim, that is a messy situation any public official should strive not to get into. If the institution is right in their claims, then Mrs' Oduah has taken a wrong step somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe operative word here is 'if'. Let the accusers produce evidence and take it up appropriately. While she does not need an MBA to be a minister, I believe she is also not allowed to make a false claim. I'm not a lawyer so the lawyers should do the right thing. My issue is that there is no evidence provided and this may not be true at the end of the day but the purveyor of the lie moves onto the next one.
ReplyDeleteIf the caretakers of my alma mater say tomorrow that I did not graduate from the institution, I think I will have a lot to lose by not proving that I did.
ReplyDeleteThe burden of proof rests solely with the accusers. Chikena.
ReplyDeleteWhere can we start this book club to give people access to information. Whether they will come is my worry.
ReplyDeleteOkay o.
ReplyDeleteMy angst with us Nigerians is that somehow the truth does not matter when we feel that the person on the receiving end is 'our own' yet we seek visas to go live in countries where things work well simply because they do the proper thing and do not tolerate or condone chicanery. Where in the world do BMWs cost 800k USD? Who is the supervising Minister for all the parastatals in the Aviation sector that have been accused of such wanton profligacy? lest it has skipped the recall of everyone, the first person to come out to justify the purchase of the beemers was Oduah's personal aide. His argument was not that the cars were not bought at that the stated price but that they were bought due to threats to her life. Even Dora Akinyuli who we all know had a palpable threat to her life due to her battle against purveyors of fake and adulterated drugs never had one scandal against her name. Yet we complain when the rest of the world regard us with such disdain. I laughed when Nigerians complained out loud at the perceived treatment and lack of respect meted out to Nigeria during the funeral ceremonies for Mandela........we deserve it cos the world sees us as we celebrate and venerate crooks while we ignore and subdue our men and women of honor. They are no fools, our leaders and shot callers dance naked in public and they all see what is going on, yet instead of calling a spade a spade we seek to justify their perfidy on such spurious and disgraceful ground like 'she is been attacked because she is Hausa' or ''is she the only one...........what of the others'' .Would anyone of us who has worked and slaved hard for their money and built a business tolerate say an accountant that spends our company money to buy a BMW at almost 10 times the listed price? Please lets get real and save our dear Nation before it is totally ground into the dust
ReplyDeleteToronto again!!!!!
ReplyDelete@Onochie, I agree. If the administrators of a school you did not attend or claim to attend say that you were never their student nko? We need to start asking those questions so that both the opposed and the opposition will stop taking us for granted.
ReplyDeleteI largely refrain from discussing Nigeria on social media because we all come with a mindset. This is not about tribe, at least no one has stated so here. The discussion on this thread has largely been about the burden of proof. We are so used to quick-fixes in Nigeria that no one bothers to do things right. If it does not happen immediately, we lose interest & move on. For that reason, our politicians also play the time card & do their things as they want. Nigeria is not worse than other countries but unfortunately, those that have the media mouthpiece decide how we will be portrayed. If things don't go their way, they make things ungovernable for the reformer.
ReplyDelete@Kingsley spot on. Educated folks should live the spirit of inquiry and not press led. So before you launch into defence or opposition seek for facts
ReplyDeleteLet's deal with the issues here and leave the personalities involved. Did Stella lie about her qualification? If yes, provide proof. What does our constitution say about that? Please follow it up to the end by going to court or ICPC. It may take 5 years but get it concluded. That is how it works in those civilized places where we seek visas to. They do not convict people on the pages of the newspapers not to talk of blogs! If you convict one person today, it will serve as a precedent to go after others.
ReplyDeleteSame thing during Otteh's issue with SEC's bureaucrats and the NAS. Follow the rule of law that is the principle upon which all developed society built up. Equity delivered blind.
ReplyDeleteIf the school does not offer post graduate studies, then it only strengthens the fact that our leaders are corrupt. Without strict anti corruption laws ...... your guess is as good as mine. God save Nigeria (from Nigerians)
ReplyDeleteOf a sudden.......all erstwhile references to St. Paul’s College Lawrenceville, Virginia, United States have disappeared.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nigeria.gov.ng/.../112-federal-ministry-of...
Federal Ministry of Aviation
www.nigeria.gov.ng
Federal Government Of Nigeria
Please confirm that you saw it before now. I ask this because this is not the first time we have seen things that did not check out upon scrutiny and if you are not sure you saw it, please just state so. You are not on trial surely. I just want us to differentiate ourselves from the beer parlour crowd by asking questions and going to Google when we hear these things so that we do not unwittingly play with our own credibility by re-broadcasting lies. I still remember Nmutaka & his posts during the last election that he was challenged on. One of them was about the largest hydro-electricity dam in China that was built in one year. If I had not known Nmutaka for years...
ReplyDelete