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 SaharaReporters has learned from the President of the college 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 during a phone conversation with SaharaReporters. 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, SaharaReporters broke the story 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.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/us-college-says-it-did-not-award-mba-stella-oduah-it-has-no-masters-programme

omo see gobe!!!! but jokes apart sahara reporters sabi do amebo ooo, so tey dem get time to call the school to verify her credentials. Linda ikeji na learner where dis sahara people dey

Just when you think its over another cankerworm blows open.


I guess its her time for restitution.


Nothing dubious goes on forever.


Let her disgrace continue.

U guys get time ooo. If u guys like,u can say dt her WAEC is fake. Some people r very tribalistic in nature.....jus because Oduah is an Igbo, u people will nt allow us to hear word. Is she d only person dt hav committed such crime b4? Where is Farouk and CO? Have they been skined alife? Oduah is going no wia.

front page plzz

If not for any other thing, I love the fact that Saharareporters actually make investigations and write about them. Not all these internet recyclers and political pawns we call news companies.

If this is true, kudos to Saharareporters! We need more investigative reporting. Nigerians deserve the hidden truth.

Why all the deep investigations?
Why don't you go and investigate Tinubu?

According to T.B Joshua,
He said many politicians will fall by year 2014...


So i'm not surprise because God as decided to intervene in Nigeria situation...

when the evils of the society are been exposed, we should not be partisan, ethnical or religious. The exposure surely will clean the society, only the truthful individual could lead the country aright.
One vice leads to other, whoever forges certificate to get a position can never be trusted with public fund.

Utchgirl: U guys get time ooo. If u guys like,u can say dt her WAEC is fake. Some people r very tribalistic in nature.....jus because Oduah is an Igbo, u people will nt allow us to hear word. Is she d only person dt hav committed such crime b4? Where is Farouk and CO? Have they been skined alife? Oduah is going no wia.

ROFLMFAO

Utchgirl: U guys get time ooo. If u guys like,u can say dt her WAEC is fake. Some people r very tribalistic in nature.....jus because Oduah is an Igbo, u people will nt allow us to hear word. Is she d only person dt hav committed such crime b4? Where is Farouk and CO? Have they been skined alife? Oduah is going no wia.

bt y do u pple encourage bad habit solely coz u re of d same ethnic group?

Utchgirl: U guys get time ooo. If u guys like,u can say dt her WAEC is fake. Some people r very tribalistic in nature.....jus because Oduah is an Igbo, u people will nt allow us to hear word. Is she d only person dt hav committed such crime b4? Where is Farouk and CO? Have they been skined alife? Oduah is going no wia.

Your thinking is too cheap for a woman.

So who is a tribalist now? The people who were objective with their comments or you who had to remind us all that she is Igbo?

So Sahara reporters should close their eyes because Farouk and co were not prosecuted?

Is Sahara reporters the police or Efcc now?

Something is wrong with you!!!!

Wake up and get help.

.why am I not surprised...



Glorified call girl

Well done sahara....well done

So this is supposed to be news ? 99.9% of the politicians from the north and west have fake or bought credentials but Sahara thugs choose to ignore them, just because this lovely lady is an Igbo woman we should just put her under the microscope and criticize her for everything.

niggi4life: omo see gobe!!!! but jokes apart sahara reporters sabi do amebo ooo, so tey dem get time to call the school to verify her credentials. Linda ikeji na learner where dis sahara people dey

That is their job....and boy are they slaying the

competition....Nigerian news media wake up!!!

Utchgirl: U guys get time ooo. If u guys like,u can say dt her WAEC is fake. Some people r very tribalistic in nature.....jus because Oduah is an Igbo, u people will nt allow us to hear word. Is she d only person dt hav committed such crime b4? Where is Farouk and CO? Have they been skined alife? Oduah is going no wia.

You are a certified criminal. A disgrace to the new Nigeria. It is criminals like you who pollute Nigerian churches the more these days.

Nauseating human beings.

And they choose to cover up Tinubu`s certificate fraud, even when Gani Fawehimi unearthed the whole truth.....Hypocrites

Freewilly: So this is supposed to be news ? 99.9% of the politicians from the north and west have fake or bought credentials but Sahara thugs choose to ignore them, just because this lovely lady is an Igbo woman we should just put her under the microscope and criticize her for everything.

and ur point is?