UBIS University in Switzerland has disowned the Doctorate Degree in International Relations being paraded by Nigeria’s Minister for State, Petroleum, Timipre Sylva.
Aiko Juvet, the UBIS University’s Global Admissions Representative, in an email, said the school does not offer any program leading to the award of a Doctorate Degree in International Relations and have never awarded such to Mr. Sylva who claimed to have acquired the degree from the University in 2011.
While suing the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of Pointblanknews.com, Jackson Ude, for defamation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Sylva deposed in his affidavit of support that he attended the University of Port Harcourt for his Bachelor’s Degree, a Doctorate Degree in International Relations from the UBIS University, Switzerland and another Doctorate Degree in Public Administrations from the Africa Institute For Public Administration in Nigeria.
Although while Sylva did not indicate in the court documents that his Doctorate Degree from UBIS University was awarded Honoris Causa, the University said they never awarded any Honorary Doctorate Degree to the Nigeria’s Minister of State, Petroleum.
UBIS University said they only offer Doctorate Degree in Business Administration.
Africa Institute for Public Administration in Nigeria where Sylva claimed he received a second Doctorate Degree, is not accredited by the Nigerian University Commission, NUC, and there is no official website for the institution.
A person convicted of perjury under the U.S federal law may face up to five years in prison and fines. The punishment for perjury under state law varies from state to state, but perjury is a felony and carries a possible prison sentence of at least one year, plus fines and probation.
Pointblanknews.com had reported how former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Patrick Dele Cole, former Special Adviser on International Affairs to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Timi Alaibe, former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Corporation, NDDC were caught in a web of certificate scandal, following their conferment with Honorary Doctorate Degree from Irish International University, a phony University in England that had been on Government blacklist since 2005.
A royal father, Eze Cletus Illomuanya of Imo State, an unnamed Northern Emir and a Southwestern Oba, Ace broadcaster, Bisi Olatilo were also conferred with bogus Doctorate Degree.
Tinubu and Alaibe were conferred with honorary Doctorate in Business Administration in 2007.
Also, a former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah was in 2014 exposed for lying to have acquired a Master’s degree from the St. Paul’s College in the United States and for lying on oath to the Nigerian Senate, that another American ‘university’, Pacific Christian University awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 1998, according to a report by Saharareporters. Adamu Abdulhamid, Nigeria’s newly appointed Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation did not obtain a master’s degree in Business Management and Leadership from London Graduate School, UK, as claimed, the institution told Peoples Gazette.
In 1999, for example, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, was entangled in several lies that led him into the Hollowed Chambers. The disgraced lawmaker had falsified his age and academic endowments, claiming he had attended the University of Toronto, Canada. This was refuted by the academy, while the Ahmadu Bello University, Kaduna State, had expelled him for using fake credentials to gain admission.
