Tinuade Sanda, the former managing director and chief executive officer of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), has been in the news for controversial reasons over the past few weeks. She was sacked by Eko Disco and West Power and Gas (WPG) Limited in one month.
In March 2022, Sanda was appointed the
managing director of Eko Disco, becoming the third woman to lead in this
capacity in the industry — after Funke Osibodu of Benin Disco (2013) and Folake
Soetan of Ikeja Electric (2020).
Two years into her appointment, Sanda, who claims to have been educated across the world, became the subject of an internal investigation at the company.
Backing the decision of the board of
directors at EKEDC, West Power and Gas (WPG), the parent company of Eko Disco,
announced that it had also fired Sanda.
“We hereby advise you that your
services are no longer required and accordingly your employment with WPG Ltd is
hereby terminated effective April 17, 2024, in accordance with clause 10.2 of
the Contract,” the company said in a letter to Sanda.
“WPG Ltd is obligated to pay you three
months salary in lieu of notice and hereby advise you that the due amounts have
been credited to your account.”
ALLEGED EDUCATION FRAUD BY SANDA
According to her LinkedIn page, the
embattled MD had initially claimed that she holds a Bachelor’s degree in
applied science (BASc) from Harvard Business School and an MBA in Strategic
Planning from the University of Edinburgh.
She also claims to have earned a PhD
in Benin Republic.
PhD FROM ‘NON-EXISTENT’ UNIVERSITY
To verify this, TheCable contacted the
university to check the authenticity of the PhD and found that the
institution’s website domain had expired and the university had been taken
offline.
What is left online of the said
university is an Instagram account where it markets itself to potential
students, especially Nigerians. The university offers a B.Sc in three years, as
against the standard four years in Nigeria, and interestingly, does not require
UTME results for admissions.
To further verify the state of the
university’s website before it was taken down, we used Wayback Machine, an
internet archive tool, to extract information.
According to this archived webpage,
the university claims it has the “Authorization No: 2014-049 MESRS/CAB/DC/SCM/DPP/DGES/DEPES/SA”
in the Republic of Benin and is “recognized by Ministry of higher Education of
Nigeria (sic)”.
We found no record of Nigeria’s
Ministry of Education approving such a university. We have since contacted the
National Universities Commission, but there was no response as of press time.
However, the list of accredited universities on the NUC website does not
include ICON University.
TheCable obtained a list of all
accredited universities by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific
Research in Benin Republic, and the ICON University was not listed. The
ministry also published a list of approved private universities in the country
in December 2020, about the time of Sanda’s graduation, and the university was
missing.
There is also no evidence that ICON
University is accredited in Nigeria and the Benin Republic.
We also extracted the names of the
management team at the university and found that many of them could not be
found. According to the now-deleted website, the management team comprises
Maria D. Smith, Simon Duval, James Hogan and Claudia Williams.
There is no digital footprint of any
of these purported professors and no academic records to support their
existence as the management team at the said university.
SANDA MISLEADS ABOUT DEGREE FROM
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
To verify her degree from Harvard
Business School, we reached out to the institution.
Responding to our queries, the office
of the registrar at Harvard Business School said Sanda did not bag a degree
from the highly-rated institution. However, HBS confirmed that she attended a
three-day executive course nine years ago.
A screenshot of the response from
Harvard Business School
“Tinuade Sanda participated in an
Executive Education course,” HBS said via email.
The business school added that she
undertook the three-day programme in “Strategic Financial Analysis for Business
Evaluation” from March 29 to April 1, 2015, receiving a “Certificate of
Attendance”.
“Please note that HBS Executive
Education only offers non-degree programs. Certificates of attendance are
awarded to participants upon completion of the program and do not grant degrees
or alumni status for the program mentioned above,” HBS added.
Since the sack by Eko Disco, Sanda’s
LinkedIn page has been edited, removing some of the previously listed
educational qualifications.
For instance, Harvard Business School
has been changed to Harvard Business School Executive Education and University
of Edinburgh has been changed to Heriot-Watt University as seen below.
NO RECORD OF STUDENTSHIP AT UNIVERSITY
OF EDINBURGH
David McGregor, a digital
communication officer at the University of Edinburgh, said Sanda did not attend
the institution, suggesting that we contact Heriot-Watt University.
Heriot-Watt, which offers a 100%
online MBA, did not confirm nor deny Sanda’s attendance but simply said: “To
comply with GDPR legislation, we are not able to release personal information.”
Sanda also claimed to be a certified
member of the Institute of Management Consultants in the United States and an
associate of the Institute of Professional Financial Managers in the UK. We
checked the published directories of both institutes and found no record of
such membership.
TheCable mailed both institutes to
confirm what we had found from their published directories, but no response has
been received more than a week after the emails were sent.
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