opinion
Observing the decadence and crises that have
bedevilled the University of Abuja recently, the Executive Secretary of
the National Universities Commission, NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie said: "We
are going to clean Abuja it is the flag ship of this nation. When
people fly into Abuja and they want to go to the University, I am always
shy to take them there, it will happen in another two years we will get
to that place, that is the issue of Abuja."
The University of Abuja is certainly not the most prestigious of the scores of federal universities in the country. Certainly not by any standard academic or in terms of infrastructural development.
Established in 1988 the university has, however, in its short existence packed a full load of crises, totally incomparable to what may have been witnessed in many older universities.
The University of Abuja understandably drew to itself attention of being the major tertiary institution in the federal capital. It was as such not unusual that many of the institutional breaches that have bedevilled the Nigeria as a country have found themselves into the university.
Remarkably, the location of the university at the federal capital was able to draw the attention of many top Abuja based politicians who used their proximity to the institution to remedy or upgrade their academic qualifications. As they came, the systemic deficiencies in the polity also came on board.
However, central to the present crisis in the university is the suspension of some major academic programmes run by the university by the federal government.
The Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayyatu Rufa'I, had on April 4, 2102 announced the suspension of medicine, veterinary medicine, engineering and agriculture from the programmes run by the university.
The announcement inevitably further degenerated the already tensed situation in the university arising from what many saw as the breaches in the leadership of the institution.
Remarkably, the crisis is believed in many quarters to be a direct face off between the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. James Adelabu and the legacy he inherited on assumption of office about three years ago. At the centre of that crisis of confidence is the allegation that the previous administration of the university headed by Prof. Nuhu Yaqoob unnecessarily widened the scope of the academic programmes leading to the present stress being faced by the present administration.
The present administration led by Adelabu in a desperate attempt to restore the academic programmes suspended as a result of lack of preparation it was learnt is now running against time to make up the requirements put forth by the regulatory bodies to ensure that the accreditation is restored.
Towards meeting the physical infrastructure requirements, the school administration has reportedly expedited action to complete a veterinary clinic for the School of Veterinary Medicine, a Medical building for the School of Medicine and an Agriculture building for the School of Agric.
Human resources especially lecturers have also been engaged for the School of Engineering ahead of another visit by the regulatory bodies of the four disciplines next month.
Noting the rot in the university and how it came about during a session with newsmen last July, Prof. Okojie said: "You know what I've always said; the politics of the system is too much. (University of) Abuja has been a system against itself. Don't forget, it was founded just in 1988, have you ever seen a University that has stayed in one primary school for that number of years? The first Vice-Chancellor was there for 10 years, ask."
"The next one followed, five years; there was somebody who acted for a period of time- another five years. These programmes you are talking of were established in 2005 (during the tenure of Prof. Yaqub) against all advice from NUC."
Noting that the Yaqub administration was urged not to start the programmes when it started them, he said: "Professor Upaa wrote, don't start these programmes. The man went ahead and started these programmes: Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, and Engineering. As we speak now, Engineering is not even on the radar at all because COREN said they don't even know it exists."
"So, before those four programmes came on board, NUC didn't go there at all- that was in 2005. When I came on board in 2006 - don't forget, we are doing reforms in all the parastatals in a hurry. In 2007, when I was a little less busy, we started what we call programme audit, to see what programmes were not approved in the system. And we captured those programmes.
"You see, my kindness is going to lead me to some problems. When we captured these programmes, students were already there and I said, ah, ah, even when this man was told not to admit students? We said ok, let us see what we can do, let us do verification, if we do verification and they are good let us put them on board. We did verification, Engineering failed. We said don't even start Engineering at all."
"For Medicine and the others, I said let us do accreditation. They failed accreditation, we said, good, now that they have failed; let us see what we can do about the students that are there but do not admit new students into the system otherwise we would have had more problems."
While noting the efforts of the present administration to redress the situation, Okojie, however, expressed reservations on the actions of some elements in the university community who he noted were being pressured to undermine the cordiality in the university.
Okojie's words were echoed by a non-governmental organisation, Coalition of Civil Society for Transparency in Governance (CCSTOG).
The group in a recent declaration through its National President, Comrade Ibrahim Alih, alleged that some staff and other university stakeholders had clubbed together to diminish the status of the school on account of their failure to achieve their quests through the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adelabu.
Pointing at what he described as the activities of "emergency comrades" in the spate of demonstrations and other crises in the school, the group alleged:
"We know the habits of responsible students in an institution like UniAbuja and confirm that the young men are acting the script of some emergency comrades within the school who have issues with Professor James Adelabu, to settle.
"We make bold to challenge them to desist from such sinister motive as the University is bigger than their selfish interest or principled stand of Professor Adelabu."
Okojie also took pot shots at the way and manner some of the students especially the medical students carried out their demonstrations on the goings on in the school.
"You want to be medical doctors, you are going to lock gate at the ministry, most professions have ethics. When I was a student in U.I (University of Ibadan), you couldn't play football if you are a medical student, they will fail you, they will say you are not serious enough. Here are students locking the gate and holding the padlock," he said.
Source Vanguard Newspaper
The University of Abuja is certainly not the most prestigious of the scores of federal universities in the country. Certainly not by any standard academic or in terms of infrastructural development.
Established in 1988 the university has, however, in its short existence packed a full load of crises, totally incomparable to what may have been witnessed in many older universities.
The University of Abuja understandably drew to itself attention of being the major tertiary institution in the federal capital. It was as such not unusual that many of the institutional breaches that have bedevilled the Nigeria as a country have found themselves into the university.
Remarkably, the location of the university at the federal capital was able to draw the attention of many top Abuja based politicians who used their proximity to the institution to remedy or upgrade their academic qualifications. As they came, the systemic deficiencies in the polity also came on board.
However, central to the present crisis in the university is the suspension of some major academic programmes run by the university by the federal government.
The Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayyatu Rufa'I, had on April 4, 2102 announced the suspension of medicine, veterinary medicine, engineering and agriculture from the programmes run by the university.
The announcement inevitably further degenerated the already tensed situation in the university arising from what many saw as the breaches in the leadership of the institution.
Remarkably, the crisis is believed in many quarters to be a direct face off between the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. James Adelabu and the legacy he inherited on assumption of office about three years ago. At the centre of that crisis of confidence is the allegation that the previous administration of the university headed by Prof. Nuhu Yaqoob unnecessarily widened the scope of the academic programmes leading to the present stress being faced by the present administration.
The present administration led by Adelabu in a desperate attempt to restore the academic programmes suspended as a result of lack of preparation it was learnt is now running against time to make up the requirements put forth by the regulatory bodies to ensure that the accreditation is restored.
Towards meeting the physical infrastructure requirements, the school administration has reportedly expedited action to complete a veterinary clinic for the School of Veterinary Medicine, a Medical building for the School of Medicine and an Agriculture building for the School of Agric.
Human resources especially lecturers have also been engaged for the School of Engineering ahead of another visit by the regulatory bodies of the four disciplines next month.
Noting the rot in the university and how it came about during a session with newsmen last July, Prof. Okojie said: "You know what I've always said; the politics of the system is too much. (University of) Abuja has been a system against itself. Don't forget, it was founded just in 1988, have you ever seen a University that has stayed in one primary school for that number of years? The first Vice-Chancellor was there for 10 years, ask."
"The next one followed, five years; there was somebody who acted for a period of time- another five years. These programmes you are talking of were established in 2005 (during the tenure of Prof. Yaqub) against all advice from NUC."
Noting that the Yaqub administration was urged not to start the programmes when it started them, he said: "Professor Upaa wrote, don't start these programmes. The man went ahead and started these programmes: Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, and Engineering. As we speak now, Engineering is not even on the radar at all because COREN said they don't even know it exists."
"So, before those four programmes came on board, NUC didn't go there at all- that was in 2005. When I came on board in 2006 - don't forget, we are doing reforms in all the parastatals in a hurry. In 2007, when I was a little less busy, we started what we call programme audit, to see what programmes were not approved in the system. And we captured those programmes.
"You see, my kindness is going to lead me to some problems. When we captured these programmes, students were already there and I said, ah, ah, even when this man was told not to admit students? We said ok, let us see what we can do, let us do verification, if we do verification and they are good let us put them on board. We did verification, Engineering failed. We said don't even start Engineering at all."
"For Medicine and the others, I said let us do accreditation. They failed accreditation, we said, good, now that they have failed; let us see what we can do about the students that are there but do not admit new students into the system otherwise we would have had more problems."
While noting the efforts of the present administration to redress the situation, Okojie, however, expressed reservations on the actions of some elements in the university community who he noted were being pressured to undermine the cordiality in the university.
Okojie's words were echoed by a non-governmental organisation, Coalition of Civil Society for Transparency in Governance (CCSTOG).
The group in a recent declaration through its National President, Comrade Ibrahim Alih, alleged that some staff and other university stakeholders had clubbed together to diminish the status of the school on account of their failure to achieve their quests through the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adelabu.
Pointing at what he described as the activities of "emergency comrades" in the spate of demonstrations and other crises in the school, the group alleged:
"We know the habits of responsible students in an institution like UniAbuja and confirm that the young men are acting the script of some emergency comrades within the school who have issues with Professor James Adelabu, to settle.
"We make bold to challenge them to desist from such sinister motive as the University is bigger than their selfish interest or principled stand of Professor Adelabu."
Okojie also took pot shots at the way and manner some of the students especially the medical students carried out their demonstrations on the goings on in the school.
"You want to be medical doctors, you are going to lock gate at the ministry, most professions have ethics. When I was a student in U.I (University of Ibadan), you couldn't play football if you are a medical student, they will fail you, they will say you are not serious enough. Here are students locking the gate and holding the padlock," he said.
Source Vanguard Newspaper
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