…Scandal, indictment on Presidency, NASS, says Agoro

LAGOS – The scandal surrounding an alleged certificate forgery by Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, is not likely to fizzle out quickly, as the American National Centre for Education Statistics told an online medium, ‘Premium Times’, on Thursday that the Pacific Christian University, Glendale, which she claimed awarded her a doctoral degree, does not exist.

The National Centre for Education Statistics is an agency under the U.S. Department of Education.

Responding to an inquiry from the medium, the spokesperson for the agency, which maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date database of all American public and private educational institutions, said: “Thank you for your inquiry. I do not see a university in our database that is Pacific Christian University in Glendale”.

She, however, suggested that the closest to Pacific Christian University in the database might be Hope International University in Fullerton, which, she believed, used to be known as Pacific Christian College.

Contacted, Every Delarosa of the registrar’s office at Hope International University confirmed that the institution used to be known as Pacific Christian College and not Pacific Christian University as Oduah indicated in her resume.

Even at that, Delarosa insisted Oduah could not be referring to Hope University because the institution changed its name from Pacific Christian College in 1997 while Oduah claimed she was awarded a doctorate in Business Administration 1998.

The Hope University official also explained that the institution, even when it was known as Pacific Christian College, had never had a campus in Glendale.

She said the university was based in Long Beach city at the time.

“We do not have any records of any candidate by the name Stella Oduah or related names,” Delarosa said, after poring through the university record. “Whether now that we are Hope University and in the past when we were Pacific Christian College, we did not give any such person a degree here.”

The aviation minister had claimed on oath to the Senate during her confirmation hearing on July 2, 2011 that a Pacific Christian University awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1998.

On page four of the document, the minister claimed the university, which, she said, was based in Glendale, awarded her an honorary doctorate in Business Administration.

It was based on this document that she was grilled and eventually confirmed by the Senators.

But investigations have revealed that no university called Pacific Christian University existed in the United States.

Hours were spent on Wednesday searching the U.S. Department of Education’s National Centre for Education Statistics database by state (California), city (Glendale) and name of institution (Pacific Christian University).

Yet, nothing came up in the name of the university Oduah claimed gave her an honorary doctorate.

According to the database, there are six colleges (universities) in Glendale, a city of 191,719 inhabitants in Los Angeles County, in the state of California.

The colleges are American Medical Sciences Centre, Brand College, Glendale Career College, Glendale Community and North-West College.

There is no such university known as Christian Pacific College as claimed by the minister.

Efforts to get the spokespersons for the minister to comment for this story were unsuccessful.

Joe Obi, her special assistant on media, did not answer or return calls.

Yakubu Datti, spokesperson of the aviation agencies, who usually speaks for her, answered the call by the online medium but immediately said he would call back but he did not.

Oduah, and her associates have been cleaning up the minister’s biographies on the internet, following allegations that she lied about her academic qualifications.

The minister claimed she got Bachelor and Masters Degrees from St. Paul’s College.

But after it became clear she might not have earned a Master’s from that university, Oduah edited her biography on the website of the Ministry of Aviation, with references to St. Paul’s College removed.

The Wikipedia page of the minister was also edited and it now has no reference to the university Oduah attended.

All links and reference materials on the Wikipedia page capable of linking the minister to the university were also deleted.

Even the minister’s personal website was reviewed to remove any reference to St. Paul’s College.

Oduah had since October been enmeshed in N255 million armoured cars scandal in which she was accused of compelling an agency under her supervision, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), to buy her two exotic bulletproof cars at suspected inflated prices.

The House of Representatives has since asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the minister but the President has failed to act.

Presidential candidate of the National Action Council (NAC) in the last general elections, Olapade Agoro, while reacting to the certificate scandal on Thursday in Ibadan noted that the certificate scandal, said it is a great indictment on the National Assembly.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Independent, Agoro argued that Nigerians would ask questions on how the “Oduah who possibly never has more than school certificate got cleared for the ministerial appointment by the National Assembly.”

He called on the minister to resign her appointment, saying “if Oduah has a name to protect, she should have resigned during the N250 million bulletproof cars scandal, rather than waiting for the worst scandal to unveil”.

Agoro also called on the Inspector General (IG) of Police and other security agents to immediately set up a probe of the minister, and to ensure that she does not only resign, but that she was made to face the law.

“Show me your friend, and I will tell you whom you are, says an English adage. Also, they say that birds of the same feather flock together. The Oduah’s case is a great indictment on the Presidency and the National Assembly members.

“Character and way of life of those leading a nation will definitely have effects on the people of the nation. Stella Uduah should not be allowed to remain as a minister in Nigeria if the allegation of certificate forgery against her is true.

“One can see that in her time, Nigerian has recorded the worst of accidents in the aviation industry as if the gods are angry,” Agoro added.

– DAILY INDEPENDENT