Nigeria : Stella Oduah’s Honorary Ph.D is Fake

The American National Centre for Education Statistics has told PREMIUM TIMES that the Pacific Christian University, Glendale, which Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, claimed awarded her a doctorate degree, does not exist, confirming this newspaper’s Wednesday’s report that the minister’s purported honorary Ph.D is fake. The National Centre for Education Statistics is an agency under the U.S. Department of Education. Responding to a PREMIUM TIMES’ inquiry, 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 Mrs. Oduah indicated in her resume. Even at that, Ms. Delarosa insisted Mrs. Oduah could not be referring to Hope University because the institution changed its name from Pacific Christian College in 1997 while Mrs 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,” Ms. Delarosa said, after pouring 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.” This newspaper had Wednesday reported that the aviation minister lied on oath to the Nigerian Senate, by claiming that a Pacific Christian University awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 1998. continued