University Of Abuja: Of Impunity And Corruption

Gross impunity and opulent shenanigans is not new in Nigerian academic environment especially the public universities. However, University of Abuja stands out in everything but decency. It acts like lord of the manor and takes its own crass lawlessness way too far.

Located in the seat of power, one ordinarily would have imagined that the university would have been a model for other randy universities to follow. Regrettably, that has not been the case. It has continually distinguished itself in all unpopular practices and excellently made a very bad example for any university anywhere in the world to imitate both in character, learning and otherwise.

Few years ago, the university prematurely off loaded thousands of our youths out of the classroom for a fault that’s not theirs. Most affected were engineering and medical students who have spent between four to five years in their academic pursuit. As if they’re above the law, this incidence was not enough to teach the university the dangers of running non accredited courses. They, like the deaf fly that goes down the grave with the corpse continued maintaining these illegal departments not minding the emotional and psychological effects it has on our youths and the economic implications the parents and guardians have got to shoulder.

That all the 2016/2017 graduating students of the Department of Zoology were sympathetically compensated with biology certificates leaves much to be desired about our universities particularly, the irritant university of Abuja. This again, brings to the fore the already glaring fact that our regulatory bodies only exist as a conduit to drain government’s resources in salaries and mind boggling maintenance costs. Was the NUC dining with its ancestors when the University of Abuja was operating Zoology department for several years just to end up genuflecting before the students begging them to accept biology certificate? Where was the Governing Board of the university when this mother impunity was being perpetrated by the misguided character called VC and his cohorts? It has been a herculean task to convince a close relative who was affected in this certificate swapping to move on with her life. The emotional trauma has been devastating and the shame and discrimination out of this world. How do you tell your friends and family members you read Zoology just to graduate with Biology Certificate. What about the social implication of such fraud?

From a layman’s understanding, biology as the scientific study of life and structure of plants and animals is not the same as Zoology which is a branch of biology that exclusively deals with animals and their behaviour. What University of Abuja is inadvertently telling the world is that these students were oblivious of the existence of biology before they opted to read Zoology. This is akin to selling orange in place of apple. The huge disparity in fees charged for both courses eloquently affirms this assertion.

At a time the government is sparing no effort in ensuring that our dwindling fortune in education is revived, university of Abuja is doing everything possible to sabotage the efforts of the state. At a time no Nigerian university is mentioned among the best 1,500 in global ranking, the university is acting as if it operates from the moon.

This recklessness on the psyche of our innocent young ones and the rape on our education sector must not be allowed to continue. It’s understandable that poor sense of enquiry and desperation to secure admission in the highly skewed and corruption infested sector may have lured students to read courses that are not accredited. This is not to say that the regulatory bodies have not exhibited a high sense of docility and laziness in justifying their jumbo pay.

The fact that some of our graduates still wield certificates that are not recognised in our labour market several years after graduation on the ground of non or interim accreditation in issuing universities is enough colossal damage in the psyche of the victims and their sponsors.

All stakeholders in this very vital sector must rise up and demand an end to this premeditated wickedness. The civil societies, the media and all concerned citizens must not fold their arms in akimbo while the sector continually goes awry. This is a clarion call on all citizens to lend their voices to bring to an end irresponsible behaviours among the university administrators. At a time we are battling exam malpractices, sexual harassment, extortion, bribery, cultism, certificate racketeering etc in our universities, adding certificate swapping to it will compound the already clustered scenario. Those involved in this selling one-eyed sheep in place of a healthy cow must be identified and shown the way out to save the sector from further deterioration.

Enemanna is a student of International Institute of Journalism, Abuja.

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.