Two issues will engage my attention this week because of the repercussions they have for both present and past undergraduates of the University of Abuja and the Benue State University (BSU), Makurdi which has to do with the controversy surrounding the accreditation of certain courses. Last month, the Special Visitation Panel set up for the University of Abuja by the Federal Government recommended that unaccredited courses currently being run in the 24-year old institution be discontinued. This, according to Mr Theo Chike Osanakpo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman of the 45-member panel, is against the backdrop that they did not follow laid down rules and guidelines.
Some of the UniAbuja unaccredited courses are Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Engineering which were established in 2005 against the advice of the National Universities Commission (NUC). If the recommendation is accepted and implemented, it would invalidate the certificates of many graduates of the institution, while some of the students currently studying at the school may have to seek transfer to other schools. The big question will remain what happens to those that have already graduated if their certificates are invalidated for an action that is totally not of their making?
The situation in BSU is quite different, in 2003, the College of Health Sciences of the institution was established, and eight years down the line it is yet to be accredited by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). The Teaching Hospital, which is one of the core conditions for the establishment of the college, is still under construction and the university managed to only get the accreditation for pre-clinical courses in 2005. This development has delayed the graduation of pioneer students, and has kept others in the college without promotion to another level of study. While trying to get accreditation, authorities of the college were said to have merged students in higher levels in order to admit fresh ones. The failure of subsequent accreditation exercises led to the accumulation of batches of students in 400-Level since they could not proceed any further. There are presently about three batches of 400-Level students’ saturated at the top.
In order to know where they stand, medical Students of BSU in February this year besieged the Benue State Government House to register their frustration over the inability of the government to prevail on the accreditation body to certify the courses. But eight months after reassurances from the government that the hospital will be ready in time for accreditation, the students’ patience has been stretched to the limit as they barricaded the two entrances to the College in their bid to drive home their point which forced the authorities to send them on a two week “vacation” to enable the management “sort out the problems.”
The MDCN, on its part, has threatened to close down the college if it is not invited by BSU management for accreditation. Whichever way we look at it, it is apparent that students may spend 10 years and above for a five or six years course because certain policies were not adequately thought through by those in authority before implementation. What, one may be tempted to ask, is the rush to establish a medical college which has to pass through stringent accreditation because of clinical issues when proper feasibility studies with timeline are not adhered to? Medicine is not a course that should be treated like others because human lives are involved here and prospective Doctors must be adequately trained psychologically, mentally and academically for the challenges of the profession. What manner of Doctors are we training when they spend the better time of their studies agitating for accreditation?
Back to UniAbuja; the panel, in its report, observed that many of the facilities in the institution are unbefitting for any university as only six percent of the institution’s master plan has been achieved; the master plan ought to be fully attained by 2025. Let’s hear the Chairman on this: “Having done an overhaul of the entire programmes in the institution, our findings and recommendations to government is that programmes that are not duly approved for the university should not be run by the university. Besides that, we also looked at governance and administration, we x-rayed the administration starting from the first Vice-Chancellor Isa Mohammed through to the current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adelabu and we also looked at governance by the respective governing councils from inception till date.”
Armed with this the panel declared that financial mismanagement and administrative lapses contributed to failures at the institution. The panel’s audit showed that the university has received N35 billion in incomes since 1988, but found that sound accounting was lacking at the school and that “financial prudence must be enthroned in the University of Abuja” as it noted that “the university’s vice chancellor was not being adequately benchmarked by the governing council.” It lamented the situation of the school, stating that it suffers from a deficiency in governance structure, which has negatively impacted the growth of the institution which it blamed on poor governance structure and the financial impropriety in the institution which is the bane of its growth.
In the wake of its investigation of projects at the institution, the panel also described the mini campus was “a mockery of the university system”, because it didn’t have hostels, the facilities were poor, lecturers did not have space and students did not have any sporting facilities. Yet this is a university that has consistently admitted students to study capital intensive courses like Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Engineering without the requisite equipment and facilities to back it up.
Even if it’s only on paper, I’m pleased that the Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayyatu Rufa’i said government was “disturbed by systemic rot (at UniAbuja) and the failure of its (accessory organs) to discharge their roles of repositioning the university.” She should go beyond this and ensure that the students are transferred to other institutions if it becomes apparent that the courses will not be accredited, the same goes for BSU students.
I’ve written in the past that the hub of any industrial and economic development of a nation is its education through which the citizenry could harness the material and human resources for nation building. For Nigeria to achieve its vision of becoming “one of the leading 20 largest economies in the world by the 2020,” the nation must be able to harness the potentials inherent in its creative and resourceful citizens and not continue to pay lip service to an important and critical sector like education.
This is the main reason why particular attention should be paid to the nation’s university system, given that universities are established for the generation of new knowledge to support economic growth and competitiveness. Nigeria, no doubt, has remained largely a consumer nation because of lack of skilled manpower and commitment of the government to invest in the right type of education. A situation where students spend more than 10 years for a five years course with no clue whether they will graduate is psychologically traumatizing, both for the students and their parents or guardians.
We are living in a rapidly changing world where knowledge is fast becoming one of the most important and prized commodity for advancement to the detriment of natural resources in its raw form. The onus is on the government to explore avenues where our universities are encouraged to fast track the establishment of Entrepreneurship Study Centres which was first mooted in 2006 as a direct response to the need to impart entrepreneurial skill to undergraduates in universities across the country, not only to ensure self-reliance but to also provide basic skills for optimal performance in the workplace and beyond.
