Imagine spending 10 years to complete a six-year course and then after the final examinations, you are told that you would not be inducted by the professional body you are supposed to belong to eventually. Then, you become stranded for another 10 years before help came your way.
That was the lot of 160 medical students of the Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State who faced significant delays in their training and induction due to accreditation issues with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). They completed their final examinations in August 2024 after roughly 10 years of study, and were left stranded without induction. It was only in January 2025, that the Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, intervened to resolve the impasse, resulting in the induction of 128 later that year.
Hundreds of Nursing students from the same institution faced a similar situation for years until Okpebholo stepped in to get them inducted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
The University of Benin is currently battling a similar situation as it reportedly admitted more students for Optometry than the quota given it by the accrediting authorities.
However, the management of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, got more than what they bargained for, when some students admitted to study Engineering, took them to court for demoting them from 300 and 400 levels to 200 because their programme was yet to secure accreditation from the National Universities Commission, NUC.
Genesis of UNICAL issue
In 2021, over 200 Engineering students of the university were demoted from final year and third year to second year because the university was yet to secure accreditation for their course. The issue generated controversy, with some of the students accepting their fate but eight students headed to court to challenge the decision. The university had anticipated that by 2024/2025 session, when the students would be graduating, they would be able to secure accreditation for the course.
The dissatisfied students went to court and instituted a suit: FHC/CA/CS/117/21) filed by Idiong Ekpedeme Godwin and seven others, popularly known as the “UNICAL 83 against the university, its former Vice- Chancellor, Professor Florence Obi, and four others, seeking to declare the action of the university as illegal, “fraudulent, reckless and deceitful” for admitting the students without accreditation of the Engineering Course by the National Universities Commission, NUC.
In a landmark judgment, the court presided over by Justice R. O. Dugbo-Oghoghorie, awarded N50 million in general damages and N5.247 million in special damages to the plaintiffs for the psychological trauma and academic stagnation they suffered.
The students provided evidence showing that full accreditation of the Engineering Course in the university was secured in the 2024/2025 academic year.
The Judge ruled that “No institution should operate a programme without prior NUC approval; the University owes a ‘duty of care to disclose the accreditation status of its courses to prospective students.”
It is a shameful development — CONUA
Reacting to the development, the National President of the Congress of University Academics, CONUA, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, described the development as shameful.
“It is a shameful development and it is one of those things that erode academic culture in our universities and we want to compete globally. What are we teaching our students if our universities are engaged in such an act.
“The ideal thing is that you don’t admit students for a programme that has not been accredited. Assuming a programme loses accreditation when students have been admitted, the ideal thing is to be honest about the situation, tell the students what the university is doing about the situation and stop admitting new students until the accreditation is secured.
“Admitting students and basing it on anticipated accreditation of the course is not good enough. Accreditation can go either way, you can get it or not, then are you saying you are sure of getting the accreditation through crooked means? That the process even had to go through the legal process is another thing. They just wasted the time and resources of the hapless students.”
VANGUARD.
