HEHEHE..........I never said I graduated with first class – Ibe Kachikwu

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Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu has said reports making rounds that he lied about his university degree awarded by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) is false.

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In a statement in Abuja, Director of Press in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Idang Alibi, said at no time did Kachikwu claimed that he graduated with a First Class from the UNN, while he clarified that the minister graduated from the school with a ‘Second Class Honours (Upper Division) degree’ from the Faculty of Law of the institution in 1978, and also emerged the best student.

Alibi further stated that the ministry observed that Kachikwu’s Wikipedia page had been tampered with recently, by unknown persons and might have been re-edited for sinister purposes. He said,

“The assertions in the publication are wrong and baseless and a careful check with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources would have cleared this misrepresentation. By every measurement index, The Honorable Minister has performed outstandingly in his school work and has records to show for it.”

An investigative report by Premium Times has revealed that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, lied about his university degree awarded by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).

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The minister has made several public claims that he graduated from the institution with a first class honours, a claim that’s repeated on his official biography page on the website of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and his Wikipedia page.

“Dr. Ibe Kachikwu is a distinction graduate of Law from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Nigerian Law School. He bagged First Class degree in Law and was best graduand and multiple awards winner from both Institutions,” his profile read.

The minister’s most public claim of his degree came while he was speaking during the 17th anniversary celebrations of the Commonwealth Of Zion Assembly (COZA) held at the church headquarters in Abuja in 2016. He said;

“…I went to Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University) to try and read medicine and I was there for two weeks and then I got admission to read law. My father drove all the way to Ife to meet me and he said to me, ‘Why do you want to go to the University?’

“I said my ambition is to be a doctor and he said why are you taking the line of what he called least resistance? And I said, what do you mean by that and he said, well, if you want to be a doctor why don’t you just go and read PHD, get to the very top…

“My dad was talking to a little boy and that got me. So, I packed my bag, left the school of medicine and went to read law.

“And, I got in there, got a scholarship and became the best student, I had a first class in that institution (UNN).”

Though, a fact check by the DUBAWA and Premium Times, discovered that the minister didn’t graduate with first class honours, but with a second class upper degree. He joined the institution to study law in 1974 and graduated in 1978.

Kachikwu joins a growing list of the country’s public officials who have been caught in scandals involving academic certificates.