12 October 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, Thursday, denied graduating with a First Class degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
In a statement in Abuja, Director of Press in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Idang Alibi, said 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.
He 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.
Alibi 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.”
Explaining the video of its presentation at the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, COZA, Alibi said the substance of Kachikwu’s comment in the church was to the effect that he had a first class performance in school and was emphasizing on the need for hard work amongst youths to get them to the top of their game.
Alibi maintained that the official Curriculum Vitae, CV, and resume of the honourable minister of state for petroleum resources was in the public domain and had been submitted to various levels of Government and Parastatals.
He said, “Also line six, page three of the document herein attached clearly states that Dr. Kachikwu obtained a ‘Second Class Honours (Upper Division) degree’ from the Faculty of Law in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he graduated as best student in 1978. In addition, no First Class Honours were awarded by UNN that year.
However, he was on the list for best graduands with Second Class Upper Honours for that year.
“He was the best graduating student in the Nigerian Law School in the year 1979 (the first in class) with multiple prizes (winning five out of all seven prizes given). In 1979, the Nigerian Law School had not begun a process of classifying its certificates.
“That begun many years later. However best graduands have subsequently now been classified in the First Class category by the Law School.
“For Harvard University, his CV correctly states that he was a Distinction graduate for the Master’s degree programme (First in Class) at Harvard University and that he obtained his SJD in a record time of one and a half years. The various academic awards received during his education days are clearly spelt out in his CV/Resume.”
