No Student Impregnated Lecturer At Fed University Lafia – Spokesperson

The Federal University Lafia has dismissed as fake the viral story on the social media about a Computer Science student who was allegedly expelled by the university for impregnating his lecturer.

In a statement issued by Mr. Abubakar Ibrahim, the Head, Information and Public Relations Department of the University, the institution described the story as “nothing but a fabrication by the writer …aimed at destroying the good image and reputation of Federal University Lafia...”

Read the statement below:

Hijab: We Exist And Die As Either Christians Or Muslims

By Nnedinso Ogaziechi

The past two weeks came with a cocktail of events that made me both proud on one hand and very sad on the other. As a proud alumnus of the University of Ilorin, I was shocked that the University that had been flying the country’s flag as one of the best in global rankings from Africa had slipped down to number five in the National Universities Commission’s recently released rankings.

On the other hand, I was over the moon that all the alumni scattered across the globe are doing extremely well and are very concerned about the progress in all spheres of life in Nigeria. The 2017 reunion parties in Chicago and London brought together the stars that the University had produced over the years.

Then last week, two alumni of the University, a royal father, Oba (Dr.) Michael Odunayo Ajayi, the Elerinmo of Erinmo, Ijesha in Osun State and Nonye Adeniji organized a well-attended Empowerment Programme Training Event for the Erinmo people. Individuals left the training empowered with self-sustaining skills and start off equipment. The sponsors and organizers are neither politicians nor prepared to seek political offices. In a country, where politicians and political aspirants invite and hug media klieg lights to publicize regular activities that they not only owe the people but are paid to do so, these Unilorin alumni and others not under reference here are doing their best to live out the true promise of their humanity and learning.

Accommodation Racket At the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN)

By I. B. Nga

Since the commencement of this new academic session, several students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), have been badly destablised by the very frustrating method deployed by the Student Affairs Department in the allocation of hostel accommodation to students. Worst hit are the final year students, many of whom have been left stranded. Instead of devoting time and energy to their academic work at this very critical and terminal stage of their stay at the university,   they are running from pillar to post trying to secure hostel accommodations, all to no avail.

 The computerised system should have made the process of hostel allocation very easy if it was managed by honest people. To obtain a hostel accommodation at UNN, one has to visit the UNN internet portal (http://unnportal.unn.edu.ng/), log in with one’s Student’s Identification Code and apply for a bed-space. If the student is allocated, he or she will print out an allocation confirmation slip and use it to go to the designated bank to pay for the accommodation.  

But from the very date the university reopened for this first semester, it was an uphill task for several students to even access the UNN portal online. When eventually, some of them succeeded and logged in to apply for bed spaces, the page kept giving out the following message: "All Rooms Have Been Allocated." But while many of the unallocated students remained stranded and distracted from their academic work which has since commenced in full force, those with “connections” always got privileged information as to the exact period the system would be activated by the university officials to start allocating again. And these would rush and log in to the portal to secure rooms for themselves, settle down and face their school work. But when the information eventually spreads and the other students start logging in also, the website would start again to say that "All Rooms Have Been Allocated." After sometime, it would begin to announce something different, namely, "Try Again Later." What a frustrating situation.

Now, despite these developments, there are still many rooms that are yet to be allocated at UNN. And from time to time, those with the "right connections" get informed when the portal would start allocating and would rush to secure rooms before information reaches other students who would only log in when it has stopped allocating. 

Not too long ago, there was a fire incident at one the hostels at the UNN and the building  is yet to be renovated as to be in use. The officials are hiding behind the modest shortage this has caused to perpetrate their nefarious activities. And so they create an artificial scarcity in order to give the accommodation to their preferred students – who probably may have greased their palms.

Okojie And Liberalization Of The University System

By Dan Amor

A breezy and cheering news item on page 38 of The Authority  (Daily) of Monday January 4, 2016, made my day. Titled, "NUC targets more private varsities", the report, quoting the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, circulated that the Commission would ensure that more private universities are established in the country in the near future.

 

*Prof. Julius A Okojie

Indeed, Prof. Okojie must be commended for the quantum leap his tenure as Executive Secretary of NUC has brought to the university system in Nigeria. With a paltry 73 universities (both public and private) in the country upon assumption of office in August 2006, Okojie, a scholar of international repute and professor of forestry, has grown the number of universities in Nigeria to 141 in less than a decade. That Nigeria with a population of about 170 million already has a total number of 141 universities is not even encouraging as this is not enough to meet the yearnings and aspirations of our teeming youths for tertiary education.

According to a recent study, the United Kingdom with a population of about 60 million has 120 universities while the United States of America with a population of about 260 million has 345 universities. India, with a population of about 1.5 billion people has 398 universities while Australia with 17 million people has 36 universities. It is against this backdrop that I support the establishment of more private universities in Nigeria.

In 1999, the Federal Government licensed the establishment of four private universities namely, Heritage University in Kaduna; Igbinedion University at Okada, Benin City; Babcock University at Remo, Ogun State, and Madonna University in Onitsha, Anambra State. This was a step in the right direction. Also, in 2003, the National Universities Commission (NUC) approved the establishment of more private universities, among which are: Bowen University, Iwo; Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State; Redeemers University, Ede, Osun State. Besides a few private universities that had existed before such as Benson Idahosa University, Benin City; Pan African (now Pan Atlantic) University, etcetera, we now have new ones including Bells University of Technology; Lead City University; several newly established State universities and the 13 new Federal universities established in one fell swoop by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

President Buhari And The Resurrection Of Corruption In The Award Of Honorary Degrees In Nigerian Universities

By Mohammed Jibo Imran

On Saturday, December 12, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari shocked the Nigeria’s academic community when he went to Kaduna State University, KASU and received an honorary doctorate degree (Honoris Causa) barely seven months after his inauguration.

*President Buhari displays his award certificate 

On the surface of it, one would be tempted to ask: is the president being honoured for his records of yesteryears or is he being honoured for his performance in the last seven month? If it is for his past records, the natural question is why now and why by KASU? That university existed for over a decade, why didn’t they honour Muhammadu Buhari last year or five years ago? If the honour is as a result of his present assignment, what has he done this far to earn him a honoris causa? Isn’t it a case of moral corruption for a serving president, who has a lot of favours to dish out, accept to receive an undeserved honorary doctorate degree from a state university whose vice chancellor was, in the last six months, queried by the Visitor to the University about three times?

Is it the case that, after the KASU formula, that the president will not attend the convocation ceremony of any university unless that university include the president as one its recipients of honorary doctorate degree. How not, since over a dozen universities have held their convocation ceremonies since the coming of PMB to office and he attended none, it is therefore safe to assume that his failure to attend was because they have not honoured him with a degree. These include the University of Ibadan, University of Benin, Obafemi Awolowo University, Federal University Owerri, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, etc. And none of them received the respect of the presence of the president. Now that KASU has shown the way, any university that wants the president to attend its convocation should simply include the president in the list of the recipients of its honoris causa. They are sure to have the president coming in person to be decorated.

The question is where is the shock? The president action is shocking for three reasons. First, his receiving an honorary doctorate degree, from any Nigerian University, while holding and elected public office is immoral, illegal and a crass violation of the existing regulation guiding the award of honoris causa in Nigeria’s University System. Section 2.0 subsection (a) of the famous Keffi Declaration which was enacted on the 24th September, 2012 by the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) stated that:

Should Math Determine Who Can Read English In Nigerian Universities?

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye  

Great expectations are usually piled on our universities as very essential intellectual factories for the production of reliable human resources for achieving our lofty dreams and aspirations as a people. That is what it should be. Every year, the universities are expected to give the country quality graduates whose formal education and other forms of grooming ought to duly equip with sound intellectual, psychological and even ethical properties to assume very important and strategic positions in both private and public institutions for the advancement of national development.  

But what appears to be seriously in doubt now is whether the National Universities Commission (NUC), could still be considered a reliable ally in this aspiration, either because it has run out of quality ideas, or it is being savagely influenced by some unwholesome sentiments within its ranks to, in fact, brazenly sabotage this grand expectation.  It is tragically surprising that we have had to sit passively and watch a handful of men and women that constitute the NUC churn out a cocktail of clearly misguided policies whose only benefit is their ability to effectively erect uncrossable mountains before otherwise brilliant students and promote devastating mediocrity in the university system, with far-reaching implications to the larger society. While several local and foreign observers are bemoaning the quality of the graduates our universities are turning out these days, the NUC is busy compounding the problem by formulating policies that can only further devalue the degrees awarded in Nigeria. 

I wish to examine one of the most offensive and pernicious of these policies, and I would like to begin with an illustration.  A young girl who chose English Studies as a course of study sat for the last Unified Tertiary  Matriculations Examinations (UTME), and passed very well. She went to her university of choice, sat for the Post-UTME tests and performed brilliantly and was offered admission by the university. But when she packed her bags and went to the university to register in order to commence her programme, she met a brick wall. Even though that university had stated in the JAMB brochure that it required a pass in Mathematics to admit students to study English, she was now told at the departmental office that only a credit in Mathematics would qualify her for an admission. Okay, she would be considered if she had a credit in a science subject.  That is what the 'almighty' NUC has decreed.