NUC rejects accusations in newspaper’s editorial

THE National Universities Commission (NUC) has rejected several allegations leveled against it in the August 16 editorial of a national newspaper (not The Guardian).
     In the editorial titled: “Varsities need effective regulation,” the newspaper had asserted that, regulating the country’s 129 universities was “increasingly becoming a burden too heavy” for the commission “to bear.”
    It accused the commission of mismanaging the accreditation process, saying: “in a particularly scandalous case, 4,000 people, who have either graduated or are studying law at the Lead City University, Ibadan are now stranded after the NUC declared the course illegal.”
     It also, among others, alluded to another allegation made by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), that the commission had “bastardised and corrupted its accreditation exercise.” Besides, it asserted that university regulation, being “a big and difficult job,” also “depends on the regulator having sufficient clout and acceptable credibility to demand compliance.”
      But in a swift reaction, the commission, in a statement sent to The Guardian on Monday, described the editorial as lacking in logic and “a congeries of wild and unsubstantiated allegations, suggesting motives that are less than noble.”
    The commission affirmed that a major flaw that ran through the editorial “is the misunderstanding of the functions of the NUC.”
To start with, the commission said it was not involved in the direct management of individual universities, as wrongly stated in the editorial.
    On ASUU’s allegations, the commission wondered how a national newspaper could not distinguish between the ills that afflict universities and the alleged lapses of the NUC. It stated: “For instance, the abuse of processes in student admission, examinations, appointments and promotions, manipulation and falsification of academic reports, sexual harassment, etc., are problems that occur in universities, which are, indeed, of serious concern to the NUC as a regulatory agency. According to the Editorial, the NUC is to take responsibility for these vices that ravage our universities.”
     On the Lead City university case, the commission submitted: “The Editorial’s most severe criticism of the NUC is based on what it describes as ‘the scandalous case of 4,000 people who have either graduated or are studying law at the Lead City University, Ibadan.’  If the editorial writers had spent some time to look into the details of this case, they would have found out that Lead City University was solely responsible for the plight of these people as, indeed, the Appeal Court ruling of 30th July, 2013, has affirmed.
    “Because of the crass mischief in the editorial, it is necessary to provide a brief background of this issue. Lead City University got its licence on 9 June, 2005. The letter clearly stated, among others, that “…the Postgraduate School will also be in the third phase (five years make a phase). The College of Law is deferred for now…” The latter was because a five-year moratorium (2005 – 2010) on the establishment of new Faculties of Law in the country was in force. The Council for Legal Education had requested for the moratorium to address the backlog of Law graduates waiting to attend Law School. Not only did Lead City University illegally commence its Law programme during this moratorium, it graduated its first set of Law students in 2009.
     “It should be noted that dialogue between NUC and the University had never ceased since the issuance of its licence, but as the then Chairman of the NUC Board, Professor Shehu A.S.  Galadanchi, noted in his ‘Status Report on Lead City University’ to the Minister of Education, on 15 March, 2011, “the major issue in contention between NUC and Lead City University are the University’s complete disregard for the NUC’s regulatory role in the Nigerian University System and the unbridled inclination of its Management to breach NUC quality assurance and operational guidelines since the establishment of the University. These include: Commencement of academic programmes before the issuance of the operational licence as evidenced by the University’s attempt to mobilise students for the NYSC programme in 2007/2008, barely, two years after approval; Contravention of clause (iv) of the operational guidelines attached to its licence by: Establishment of postgraduate school in the first phase of operation as discovered by the Special Verification Visit to Lead City University, Ibadan in 2006; Commencement of postgraduate studies in programmes, wherein full accreditation had neither been obtained nor the first set of graduates produced from the related undergraduate programmes; Establishment of the College of Law without approval.
     “It is on record that the attention of Lead City University Management was drawn to all the operational lapses detected by the Verification Committee. The University’s failure to comply with most of the Commission’s operational guidelines since inception is also evident.”
     Asking the newspaper to explain how a university licenced on June 9, 2005 could have admitted 4, 000 students into its Law programme alone in seven years, the NUC affirmed: “While it is possible for some students to graduate from an unapproved programme (and this is not limited to Lead City University or even Nigeria), it is normal for a degree illegally acquired to be withdrawn at whatever point the discovery is made.
    “Considering the collaboration between NUC, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), it is most unlikely that a graduate of an unapproved programme would be mobilised for the NYSC.
Rather than comply with given directives, when its infractions were discovered, Lead City University went on a wild campaign of calumny against NUC and its Management, which was gleefully feasted upon by the media for years.
    “One of its Law graduates then took the Commission and the University to court in Ibadan and got a judgment on 26 July, 2011, declaring the Law Faculty legal. NUC appealed the judgment and won the case on 30 July, 2013. Among others, the Appeal Court declared the programme as illegal, described the plaintiff as a “busy body,” who lacked the locus standi to initiate the suit in the first place and that the Lower Court should not have entertained the case at all. Nigerians have certainly not heard the last of that judgment as the certified true copy is being awaited.”