…NUC keeps mum over matter
The fate of 1,227 final year students of the University of Port Harcourt still hangs in the balance despite recent court order directing their school to release their certificates and mobilise them for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps scheme immediately . This is because UNIPORT is also affected by the ongoing industrial action by universities. Already, the National Association of Nigerian Students has decried the non-issuance of certificates to by the management of the institution due to their inability to pay their fees within the stipulated time.
NANS has also threatened to shut down all activities at UNIPORT over the matter.
The affected students who were final year students of the 2015/2016 academic session of the university, have been forced to stay at home till date after their final examinations without being mobilised for the compulsory National Youth Service Corps scheme and the collection of their certificates.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that the students were denied these opportunities due to the late payment of their school
fees.
Reacting to the development, NANS said there was no law that states that results could be delayed due to late payment of fees.
Saying that justice was usually delayed in the country, it warned that any further delay in addressing the issue of the affected students would lead the association to shutting down the school.
Speaking with our correspondent, a former NANS president, Aruna Kadiri, disclosed that he was on the matter even before he left office and would still go as far as working with the current President of the association to shut down the school if the issuance of the certificates to the 1,227 students was delayed further.
He noted that the decisions of the university management were illegal.
Kadiri said, “It is an illegal thing to do. The school management does not have the right to delay certificates because of late payment of fees. Justice is usually delayed in this country. In the schools hand book, nowhere is it said that if school fee payment is delayed, results will be delayed as well. Unfortunately, Management always want us to react to things like this before they do the needful. It is wrong.
“I will work with the school management; by the time we close down the school, they will know.”
Speaking in the same vein, a former President of NANS and current Executive Director of African Students Education Support Initiative, Chinonso Obasi, said that the school management was wrong in withholding the certificates of the affected students over late fee payment, considering the state of the country’s economy.
Obasi said, “It is not right for certificates to be held because of late payment of school fees. Although for students to be in school they should know that there are certain criteria that they have to meet which involves payment of school fees. However, the school knows that the country has been passing through economic challenges and it is not easy for everybody.
“There should have been an alternative measure to show solidarity to these students because of the economic problem. When I was the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, I made efforts.
“I am pleading with the management to obey the court and release their certificates in as much as they have paid their fees.”
However, the school authorities have said that the students should re-enroll to enable them to get their certificates.
According to a statement from the University of Port Harcourt, the Vice-Chancellor and Chairman of Senate, Professor Ndowa Lale, disclosed that a total of 1,227 supposed final year students in that category, surreptitiously paid their charges after the expiration of the deadline in 2016.
The Vice-Chancellor recalled that the defunct Students’ Union Executive in a memorandum dated June 6, 2016, submitted a 7-point resolution to Senate as a fallout of the April 11, 2016 violent protest, following which Senate at the 422nd Meeting (Extraordinary) decided on the modalities for payment.
He, however, regretted that some of the returning final year students failed to keep to the modalities that were mutually agreed upon aimed at reducing the financial burden on them as proposed by the union leaders themselves and accepted by Senate as a precondition for ending the stalemate, resulting in the withdrawal of their degree certificates.
He said that Senate decided to withdraw their certificates because the students failed to pay the outstanding charge of N45, 000 wholly or in two instalments before the deadline of October 4, 2016.
However, reprieve came the way of the students to enable them formally graduate and become useful members of society as Senate at its 439th Meeting held on Friday, August 10, 2018, granted them a one-year concession to re-enroll and complete their programmes in the 2018/19 academic session.
Senate further directed the affected students to pay the statutory charges, register their courses and re-sit examinations in the 2018/19 session to enable them to graduate. For those who had gone through the mandatory National Youth Service Corps, Senate decided that the certificates of such students would be ratified after they had satisfied the stipulated requirements for graduation.
Overruling this statement, a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt held that the University of Port Harcourt and its management were wrong for refusing to mobilise the students for their compulsory National Youths Service Corps Programme.
The court also held that the continuous withholding of the certificates of the aggrieved students is an infringement and an act of hostility.
Presiding Judge, Justice Hilary Oshomah, in his ruling justified that the students participated in the 2015/2016 academic session, wrote exams, participated in the 2017 convocation ceremony and were admitted into the alumni association of UNIPORT after paying all their necessary dues.
He said asking the students to repeat their final year class after writing and passing the 2015/2016 academic session was inconsistent and against the Law.
Justice Oshomah also faulted UNIPORT saying the institution extorted the students by leading them on to pay all necessary fees and participate in the university activities without any hindrance.
Justice Oshomah, however, ordered the release of the certificates of the affected students and also ordered that the students be mobilised for the compulsory NYSC.
However, there are no indications that the school would respect the judgment of the court, according to a source. So, the affected students are left in a dilemma, wondering if the National Universities Commission in charge of varsities would clear them.
Unfortunately, the National Universities Commission, whose duties include ensuring quality assurance of all academic programmes offered in Nigerian universities, has decided to keep mute on the
matter.
All efforts to reach the NUC spokesperson, Mallam Yakassai Ibrahim, was abortive. Other NUC officials also refused to speak on the matter.
Recall that the NUC had warned Nigerian universities in October 2018 against unnecessary delay of students’ results and
transcripts.
The Director in charge of the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Information Technology, NUC, Dr. Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, had issued this warning in a meeting between the NUC board on ICT development and the directors of ICT from all Nigerian universities.
The commission had expressed worries about the incessant cases of missing results and transcripts of students.
