The last is yet to be heard as students of the University of Abuja have disrupted their on-going examinations with the protest of the non-accreditation of three programmes which led to their suspension by the federal government.
The programmes suspended about six months by are Engineering, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine; and the students blame the university management for the delay in the accreditation process.
Only last week, the university took over the Veterinary Teaching Hospital building put at the cost of N41.8 million, and the accreditation team from the Veterinary Council of Nigeria is expected to visit the university for the accreditation of the course.
The structure, ranked as the largest Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, was handed over by the Chairman of the Committee on UniAbuja VTH, Dr. Suleiman Mohammed, to the VC, Professor James.
Sources said this triggered the protest as Engineering students felt their Faculty was being relegated to the background.
A 400-level engineering student said "It will be wrong for the university management to say that the students are not patient enough, considering that the promise was made since April by the Vice Chancellor.
"As I speak to you, there are no equipment in the laboratory and the facilities are not enough to even invite the relevant authorities for accreditation."
However, the Information Officer of the university, Mr. Waziri Garba, said the university management has intensified efforts to ensure the accreditation of all the faculties as promised.
Though Garba noted that the accreditation of the Faculty of Engineering was capital intensive, he said they were waiting for the Nigerian Universities Commission to commence resource verification.
In support of the protesting UniAbuja students is the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Dauda Mohammed, who said they have the backing of Nigerian students who are tired of these impasses that keeps paralyzing academic activities on the campus.
"We urge the Federal Government to call the university management and the Ministry of Education to order ahead of our planned relocation of the NANS secretariat to the University of Abuja in the next 48 hours. This is planned to remain there until a resolution is found to the impasse that is threatening the continued existence of the University.
"We are disappointed at the attitude of the Ministry of Education towards correcting the anomalies that have resulted into this crisis, and we wish to categorically state that we will not allow any student to be illegally denied the right of their studentship as a result of certain incompetence on the part of the authorities of the University."
Comments Post a comment