Alleged Illegal Admission: Nigerian govt. to sanction UNIABUJA, UNIBEN, others

The University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) and the University of Benin are among Nigeria’s tertiary institutions the Nigerian government has vowed to punish for engaging in what it described as illegal admission exercises.

The other institutions that may come under the government’s hammer for violating extant admission regulations are Obafemi Awolowo University, Igbinedion University, Ignatius Ajuru University, Abia State University, Babcock University, Igbinedion University, Plateau State Polytechnic and Bogoro College of Education.

Education minister, Adamu Adamu, who issued the threat on Tuesday in Abuja at the 2021 admission policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), accused the concerned institutions of flouting the government’s directive.

This was as the minister also formally announced the commencement of the admission processes for the 2021/2022 academic session, even as guidelines for the process were released including the free will offered the individual institutions to set cut-off marks as approved by the policy meeting.

Mr Adamu, who was represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Sonny Echono, said appropriate sanctions would be meted against defaulting institutions and their leaderships.

Mr Echono, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the minister, noted that the actions of the institutions usually alter the country’s statistics of admitted candidates and those not admitted annually.

He said; “It is in furtherance of the goal of safeguarding the integrity of the admission process that all institutions were told that admission made outside the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) is unacceptable to the system.

“It is saddening that despite the clear directives at previous policy meetings some institutions still illegally admitted candidates outside CAPS. I consider such an act as a direct affront on the system and appropriate sanctions shall be applied to those found to have been involved in such a disruptive act. Similarly, any institution that issued admission letters to candidates outside CAPS will be punished for such gross indiscipline and fraud.”

For instance, the minister said a total of 255,928 illegal admissions were conducted by various institutions in 2015 for the 2014 academic calendar while the figure stood at 190,407 in 2016 for the 2015 academic calendar.

However, the minister said there was a sharp decline in the figure in 2017 when it recorded only 43,852 illegal admission figures for the 2016 academic calendar.

Earlier, during his presentation at the meeting, the JAMB registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, displayed proofs of infractions allegedly committed by institutions.

The infractions cited are as follows:

UNIABUJA 

Mr Oloyede said a candidate already admitted to study medicine by Baze University, Abuja, was later offered admission by UNIABUJA to study the same MBBS programme without going through the CAPS.

The admission body also gave evidence of a candidate who opted to study law at the university but was offered Political Science and that an admission letter was issued to the candidate without recourse to JAMB.

The registrar gave in evidence that; “Omosanya Faozeeyat Odunayo applied to University of Abuja to study Law with a score of 251. By 30th March 2021, she had been issued a ‘Letter of Admission’ by the University for Political Science

“As of Monday, 30th August 2021 (5 months after), she is yet to be proposed on CAPS by the university.”

Earlier in April, JAMB had accused the management of the university and other unnamed institutions of illegally admitting students during the 2020/2021 admission processes.

JAMB, in a statement signed by its Head of Public Affairs and Protocol unit, Fabian Benjamin, declared the admissions conducted by the university as null and void.

The examination body reiterated that it remains the only body statutorily empowered to issue admission letters to successful candidates of universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics in Nigeria.

The university’s spokesman, Habib Yakoob, denies any wrongdoing, saying the university has always adhered to admission rules “to a large extent.”

He acknowledged that the conflict between the examination body has been on for some time but that as much as he knows the university has not erred.

He said; “I don’t know… You know what, if you have been covering this beat for quite some time, particularly in the last couple of years, you would have noticed this back and forth between the university and JAMB, and our position has always been clear. So I am surprised this is coming up again.

“As far the university is concerned we adhere strictly to the rule, to a large extent, set by JAMB. So I do not think we violate this policy on CAPS. That is the much I can say for now.”

When confronted with the fact of an example given by the JAMB registrar, Mr Yakoob said he didn’t have the details of such a candidate.

UNIBEN

“A candidate wrote to the Board that the University of Benin denied her admission to Doctor of Pharmacy. The University claimed it was a result of quota inadequacy.

JAMB said it however found that the candidate had all requirements to be admitted on merit, adding that she ranked as one of the best 30 for the programme.

The admission body said to salvage the situation, it had to adjust the university’s quota by two spaces to be able to accommodate the affected because two other candidates who took her place had accepted admission.

IGNATIUS AJURU UNIVERSITY

Ignatius Ajuru University of Education wrote to the Board to reverse the admission of 151 candidates who had not accepted admission so that it would be able to replace them and conclude the admission exercise

When we checked on CAPS, 116 candidates had accepted admission out of the 151

• JAMB will not reverse the admission until candidates are contacted individually

• We could have been tempted to extend the window for the University to admit more but for the check and
contact to individual candidates

ABIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Abia State University requested for adjustment Merit Cut-Off of some highly subscribed programmes
without following derivation formula

The University was educated – Merit cut-off is derived and not imposed

PLATEAU STATE POLYTECHNIC

An official of Plateau State Polytechnic alleged and claimed at a meeting on 24th February 2021 that JAMB changed the Polytechnic’s minimum UTME score to 150

Evidence that the Polytechnic actually submitted 150 as its minimum score was made available.

The institution has tendered an unreserved apology.

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY (OAU)

OAU requested 200 as institutional minimum UTME score for all programmes.

• 180 was requested as the minimum score for candidates who went through pre-degree and those seeking admission to Adeyemi College of Education.

180 becomes the institutional minimum UTME score for all.

• Pre-degree programme candidates are not supposed to be inferior.

• Adeyemi COE holds the degree of OAU cannot have another minimum score different the
B.Ed of OAU.

BABCOCK UNIVERSITY

BABCOCK issued a ‘Provisional  Undergraduate Admission” to a candidate already admitted to FUTA

The candidate was admitted and had completed the admission process in FUTA

• The University asked the candidate through a third party to request for new admission letter without going
through FUTA

• IMPOSSIBLE

IGBINEDION UNIVERSITY

Igbinedion University requested for “Special Appeal for Regularization” of 633 ‘Students’ in June, 2021

The institution disregard the decision of the Policy Meeting and requesting for ‘REGULARIZATION’ of 633 candidates

• The ‘Students’ were ‘admitted’ between 2017 and 2020

• The ‘students’ were neither UTME nor DE candidates

• Most of the ‘students’ were for regulated programmes – MBBS, Law, Pharmacy,
Accounting, etc

BOGORO COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Bogoro College of Education requested for the ‘Regularization’ of 432 ‘students’ admitted for the 2019/2020 session

• The College claimed NCCE gave approval for NCE admission. NCCE gave approval for the establishment of the College

• NCCE gave approval for the courses to be mounted for the College but not to violate admission policy as directed by Federal Government.

2021 admission kicks off

Meanwhile, with the policy meeting successfully held, the admission process for the 2021/2022 calendar has formally commenced in the country.

But following what it described as varying recommendations cut-off marks, the policy meeting agreed that individual institutions should enjoy the free will to determine their minimum cut-off marks for admission.

According to the JAMB registrar, the University of Maiduguri proposed 150 as its minimum cut-off mark, Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto proposed 140, Pan Atlantic University proposed 210, University of Lagos, 200; Lagos State University, 190; Covenant University, 190 and Bayero University Kano wanted 180 as its cut off mark.

Meanwhile, the meeting also concluded that October 29, 2021, should be the deadline for any amendment to the 2020 admission but could not agree on the December deadline for the 2021 admission for public schools and January 31, 2022, for private tertiary institutions.

Admission guidelines

Ahead of the commencement of the 2021 admission processes, the stakeholders which comprised heads of various institutions, admission officers, and registrars, also adopted the set guidelines, which provide that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, NCE, OND, and others must be posted only through the examination body.

Speaking on the stakeholders’ decision on other admission criteria, Mr Oloyede said the candidate’s credentials must be uploaded on CAPS as recommended by the institutions of choice while JAMB approves and the candidate accepts the offer of admission.

According to the meeting, the 2021 admissions will be conducted only through CAPS, no institution is allowed to admit candidates without uploading their details on CAPS.

Meanwhile, the meeting also exempted prison inmates, visually impaired and foreign candidates from sitting for post UTME exercise.