The Almighty ABU Naturally Ahead or Behind?

By Justice Omodiagbe

The almighty Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria just graciously approved the extension of the deadline for the closure of registration by two weeks.

"What an understanding management," you may mutter. Don't be too quick to extol them; at face value, it seems so but in reality, what they did is not different from what our unscrupulous politicians do and we revile them when they do.

“How can you berate a management who listened to the pleas of her students and made efforts to assist them?” You ask almost angrily.

Why shouldn't I? When, like our politicians, they create a problem, make the masses suffer, the masses cry out, they proffer solution, make it seems they did it in the best interest of the public and we cheer them on only to repeat the vicious circle later on - a problem they created that was unnecessary in the first place just to keep us at their mercy.

Like the biblical Apostle Paul reprimanded the church in Galatians, "Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" Who has bewitched us Nigerians that we keep suffering from collective amnesia not realising the strategies politicians use over and over again and an Ivory Tower as prestigious as Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) is employing the same strategy and the "mediasphere" is silent?

You still don’t understand my rants, perhaps you see me as a “wailing wailer” like the media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, the man credited with introducing the phrase into the country’s political lexicon.

Let me intimate you on the bone of contention, you may understand why I have decided to become an epitome of Femi Adesina's wailing wailer on how ABU is becoming "naturally behind."

How can you increase school fees by about 100% and give two weeks deadline for payment in a country like Nigeria, who does that?

ABU just did that only to extend it by 2 weeks after many pleas from the ABUSRC and we are cheering them on for a problem they created.

Although the almost 100% increase is an issue on its own, I don’t have much issue with it as I believe education is not cheap and even with the increase, ABU is still among the cheapest schools in the country. My displeasure is in the initial two weeks deadline and even the two weeks extension.

With the ravaging economy of the country made worse by the Buhari-led administration, how the school management expected parents/guardians and students sponsoring themselves to cough out the increase in such short notice is not only worrisome but wicked. The extension by two weeks is not only deceitful, it must be condemned not applauded. In reality, they are the architect of the problem.

A school that prides itself as naturally ahead, is expected to do better.

If this was the only issue, it would have been better. What if I told you that candidates who wrote JAMB UTME in March 2020 are yet to resume?

Yes, you read that right; this is 22 January 2022 and they are yet to resume despite the school releasing the resumption date to be 4 January 2022 about a month earlier than the resumption date.

How can they resume when a school that prides itself as naturally ahead cannot complete a simple admission process in record time.

Resumption is 4 January 2022 and by now registration has not even begun for fresh students.

Over 200 slides of anatomy lectures in one class are being taught to 200 level medical students and their Direct Entry (DE) counterparts are still hopeful of being admitted, let alone process their registration. This is the same fate of all DE aspirants hopeful in other courses. What a pathetic situation, one created by ABU's "naturally behind" attitude!

Don't tell me Covid-19 and ASUU strike. ABU is not the only school to have been affected, others have moved past it but a premier university like ABU is still struggling to adjust, playing politics with the life of her many aspirants.

I buried my head in shame when I viewed a letter on an ABU aspirant WhatsApp status a few days ago demanding the management of the school to release the admission list of 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic sessions. How did the mighty ABU fall this low?

From her management of the post ASUU strike and Covid-19 to her protracted silence on admission modality and now delay in admission and registration despite being two weeks behind the approved calendar to the deceitful extension of registration closing date is suggestive that ABU is now a shadow of her former self. She has lost her glory days.

A young man I advised to change his school from ABU to Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto (UDUS) not only got his preferred course, but he also had until examination eve to complete his school fee payment, even had the option of paying half of the fees with an undertaking to complete the payment by the second semester and will be done with his first-semester examination in about a week time.

Had he been waiting for ABU, he wouldn’t have known his fate by now and it is possible that after the whole wait, he could still miss out on the admission.

I call on concerned stakeholders to prevail on ABU to release her admission list and to extend the registration deadline to at least a few weeks to the first-semester examination.The country is already hard, they shouldn’t make it harder.

JUSTICE EJEHI OMODIAGBE is a 100 level student of Dentistry and Dental Surgery.