American university disowns Stella Oduah on Masters degree claim

Mrs Oduah continues to claim through the website that she has a Masters degree although she wouldn’t say from which university.

The institution where Stella Oduah, Nigeria’s Aviation minister, obtained her Masters degree continues to be shrouded in  mystery as St. Paul’s College, the American university where she is believed to have received certificate, has denied awarding such honours.

The school, however, confirmed that Ms. Oduah graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (with Accounting concentration) in 1982 from the institution.

“We only confer undergraduate degrees. We did not confer graduate degree to anyone,” said Helen Jackson, the school’s Registrar, in a telephone response to PREMIUM TIMES enquiries on Thursday.

Repeated efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to reach Joe Obi, Mrs. Oduah’s Special Assistant on Media, since the news of his principal’s questionable qualifications broke have not been successful.

Hours after the news broke that she had been economical with the truth about her academic qualifications, the embattled minister and her associates scrambled to clean up her biographies on the internet.

Ms. Oduah’s biography on the website of the Ministry of Aviation was revised, with references to St. Paul’s College wiped out.

All links and reference materials on the internet, including on the minister’s personal website, linking her to St. Paul’s College were reviewed to remove any reference to the institution.

In an apparent response to the outrage that greeted the minister’s latest scandal, the Federal Ministry of Aviation pulled down Ms. Oduah’s profile from its website on Thursday afternoon.

However, by 8 p.m Thursday evening, our reporter observed that the profile was put back on again, although it had since been edited to remove all references to St. Paul’s College.

Mrs Oduah continues to claim through the website that she has a Masters degree although she wouldn’t say from which university.