MOUAU SAGA: Vice Chancellor Gives Account Of Varsity Crisis, Relate Challenges, Position, Way Forward

Professor Maduebibisi Ofo,the Vice Chancellor of Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike has said the implementation of ‘no registration no examination is not a new policy to the institution.

He however revealed that out of 16,759 a total of 13,898 paid their school fees as at on Monday.

Claiming the cost of running the university is on the increase, bridge of the schools academic calendar and late payments of school fees will hinder the universities smooth run of administration.

Professor Maduebibisi Ofo gave the revelation during a press release on Wednesday at the schools premises while also giving a position that the schools Senate will meet and come up with a position.

Recall that some students of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia, on Tuesday shut down the institution to protest against the increase of tuition fees by the management. He also added that he wasn’t attacked by the students as reported in some tabloids.

CANDIDREPORTRERS.COM gathered that the angry students, who were in their numbers, stormed different halls in the university and chased out students writing their first semester examinations and carried out lots of damages on the university facilities.

In response to the ugly development, the management of the institution shut down the school indefinitely shutdown the institution.

Read full Press release below 👇

MICHAEL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, UMUDIKE

PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE VICE-CHANCELLOR, PROFESSOR MADUEBIBISI OFO IWE ON WEDNESDAY 7 TH FEBRUARY, 2024

BACKGROUND TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF 2023/2024 ACADEMIC SESSION

Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike was one of the Universities that merged the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic sessions in order to bring in students that were admitted by JAMB during the year 2022 in which Staff Unions went on strike across the country. That batch of candidates had spent close to one year at home and a new batch for 2022/2023 was released by JAMB. The University had to completely go through that session with all its emotional, economic and social implications. Thanks to our staff who were able to carry through that session. The Financial involvement in carrying that session through was heavy and we provided both hostel and class room accommodation for over six thousand students that were involved.

At the end of that session, the University came up with a calendar for 2023/2024 session. The session started on 23rd October, 2023 after the arrival of first year students and a week after for the arrival of the returning students. Some first year students arrived promptly as expected. They were put through one week orientation and were educated on what life on campus was all about and what they were expected to do. The returning students hesitated in returning till about December, 2023, one month after they should have returned to campus. The calendar captured the schedule of events, the period for payment of charges, the period for early and late registration of courses, the period for matriculation which marks the end of admission and the period of examinations.

To our consternation, the students violated these schedules because they refused to return as at when due. By reason of fact, students who are paying their charges after the due day should have paid extra for late registration. Registration is normally done early as stated in the calendar so that departments and units concerned in examinations will be able to know their involvement in terms of preparation for examination and materials needed for such examinations.

2023/2024 STUDENTS CHARGES

Before the commencement of the session, the University Management prepared charges required for the session in conjunction with the Student Union leaders. The University Management had two or three meetings with the Student Union leaders and agreed on what eventually was sent to Senate for final approval. We must note at this point that the cost of running the University astronomically increased from October, 2023. As at September 2023, we were paying about forty four million naira (N44,000,000) for a truck of thirty three thousand litres of diesel to provide light and water for the University apart from expenses of running the entire University. Today, the same thirty three thousand litres is sold for fifty four to fifty six million naira which we must consume within four to five weeks. Meanwhile, the overhead cost we receive to run the University is Nine Million Naira (N9,000,000) per month, while our total expenses in a month is close to one hundred million naira (N100,000,000.00)

LECTURES AND EXAMINATIONS

Lectures should have ended by 12th January, 2024, but because of the late admission of students and late return of the returning students, lectures eventually ended 26th January, 2024, to allow for more time for both new and old students to pay their charges. Matriculation that was fixed for 8th December, 2023 was moved to 12th January, 2024. However, it eventually hold on Saturday 13th January, 2024. These were rooms the University allowed for students to pay their charges before the commencement of the
first semester examination. From the commencement of the session, students and their sponsors were regularly reminded to pay their charges to enable the University provide for services they needed.

IMPLICATION OF SHIFTING THE CALENDAR

Let us realize that there is a lot of implications in shifting the calendar by one, two or three weeks. What this translates to is high cost of running the University because the Administration must provide for each shift by one, two or three weeks thereby increasing the cost of energy, refuse disposal and others. What it means now is that we have already accumulated extra costs for this session.

BIOMETRIC CAPTURING OF STUDENTS

The biometric capturing introduced by this administration is to solve several problems confronting the integrity of examination and service delivery to our graduands. It is deployed to stop impersonation in examinations, the adventure of missing scripts of students during and after examinations and it is linked to timely examination processing and transcript release.

What led to it was incessant direct requests for Statement of Results, certificates and transcripts by graduands and external bodies that had made the University notorious. My administration decided to confront these anomalies, provide relief to our students, graduands, as well as parents and sponsors. Those who are working against this are unfortunately among the academic staff and Registry staff who want the statusquo to continue in corruption and making of bad name for the University. We resolved to solve the problem as we are solving others across the University.

NO PAY NO ΕΧΑΜΙΝΑΤΙON

The implementation of ‘no registration no examination is not a new policy. It has been here and in all normal Universities across the world. It is an educational policy adopted even from kindergarten.

Is it not a matter of wickedness and affront that people should resume studies without paying for it? One wonders why any human being should support such an evil, especially at a time that the fortunes of the Nigerian Universities have dwindled. Many of the people who are holding tight to returning to campus to continue their academic engagement without paying have been owing through the years. They are the population that uphold sorting with those lecturers who have refused to repent from sorting. This population are busy forging University receipts and documents. They have gone to the level of forging bank remitta that leads to a huge loss of University funds. They forge University Statement of Results and escape with piled up academic credits as well as charges accruing to the University. These are the kind of battles we have been fighting in the last three years.

The international communities have been loading us with all manner of fake certificates from this University to verify and it is actually becoming alarming. People print our certificates and transcripts and use them to fish for admission and jobs without such documents emanating from us. These are the reasons for us to grow and adopt biometric capture, a system we use in banks and embassies. Our students and their disgruntled lecturer supporters do not want it because it will reveal their nefarious trade. Should we keep clapping for them? My Administration says no!

INCREASE IN CHARGES

I have learned that the radios and social media placed the increase at 60%. That is unfortunate. Our charges are as displayed in the attachments circulated.

DAMAGES ON CAMPUS

We have toured the campus this morning and seen things for ourselves. Students would not have been stupid to burn their lecture theatre and library (arson), attempted looting a bank on campus, looting laboratories, shattering glasses of all buildings, pulling down walls built to secure them, damaging donor projects etc. These actions I am sure were performed by miscreants who forced the students to join them. But students will have themselves to blame for allowing themselves to be used as cover.

We have done everything possible to provide good environment and facilities

for our students in the last three years. Even when the funds were not there, we borrowed and engaged on advocacy of goodwill and God has been on our side.

We have also provided level-paying ground for all our staff and taken steps to protect our staff and make them happy. However, you cannot rule out disgruntleness among humans.

The activities of yesterday was fully instigated by one radio station here in Umuahia through its phone-in program. The station and her staff did not bother to interview us, did not link us up in their phone-in program, but linked up with some disgruntled elements who claimed to be students who through falsehood caused people in the streets to believe them and asked them to fight the University. I am sure that you the media people listened to that inflammable program of that radio station. I did. Before it happened, I called them and wrote that their program was going to ignite fire in my University and it did.

CONCLUSION

Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Press, we called you to tell you our own side of the story, with facts and figures as we have been doing since the commencement of this administration. You have always reported objectively. What happened here yesterday is one of those incidents in the University which University administrators usually do not want to see happen, but can always happen. A lot is involved in University administration. I have been involved continuously in University administration in the last twenty two (22) years and have seen, and known a lot. We desire that it will not happen again, but we should have come to a point in this nation that we should call a spade, a spade. We call it bad when it is bad and we should support progress and progressive development for our nation. University is not a place where people come to acquire education on credit. The point is that it is either you have the money to pay and be trained or you stay away.

While I thank you for coming, we pray for a better MOAU, a progressive academic environment in Nigeria and an objective dispensation in our world.

Thank you.

Prof. M. O. Iwe, CFS Vice-Chancellor