UNIPORT Defends Jonathan On PhD Course Saga

The University of Port Harcourt has reacted to the opposition party’s allegations that President Godluck Jonathan did not finish his doctorate degree program at the institution.

The university deputy registrar (Information) of the university, Dr. William Wodi, in a statement forwarded to the PUNCH newspaper, said President Jonathan concluded his first degree, Masters and Ph.D in the university.

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According to him, the President was one of the 422 students who were admitted in 1977 to the Department of Zoology, now named Animal and Environmental Science.

“The authorities of the University of Port Harcourt are aware of rumours that are now spreading like harmattan fire over the doctoral degree status of President Goodluck Jonathan. The allegations have neither legs nor grounds to stand on and we hope that its purveyors will now rest in silence. For the avoidance of doubt, the authorities of the University wish to state without equivocation that Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, as he then was, was among 422 students, who matriculated in 1977. He was admitted into the then Department of Zoology, now Animal and Environmental Biology in the then School of Biological Sciences, now a Faculty in the new College of Natural and Applied Sciences. At the end of a successful residency period, Jonathan was awarded the Bachelor of Science (Upper Division) in 1981. It was rumoured among students that the young university was reluctant to award the First Class to its pioneer class in an effort to consolidate its academic profile,” Wodi said.

The registrar further noted that Mr. President enrolled into the Postgraduate (PGD) program and obtained a Master of Science degree in Hydrobiology and Fisheries in 1985, adding that Jonathan became a Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology in 1995.

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“From the above account, it has become obvious that Dr. Jonathan successfully completed the prescribed courses and programmes as specified by the Senate of the University of Port Harcourt to earn his degrees from the university. We have absolutely nothing to hide as an institution that has a statutory mandate to advance the frontiers of knowledge,” Wodi said.

It would be recalled that after the presidential candidate of the All Progessive Congress (APC), General Mohammadu Buhari cleared the air on his WAEC certificate controversy, the allegation automatically switched to president Jonathan as the opposition party and other concerned Nigerians asked the President to present his PHD thesis or certificate.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, at the Ikorodu rally of the APC, said President Jonathan’s doctorate degree as well as Vice President Namadi Sambo’s degree in architecture are too weak to reflected positively on their style of governance.

Source: Legit.ng