Dealing With Illegal Universities.
The NUC should name and prosecute operators of illegal universities.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) recently told a bewildered nation that it has “discovered” 67 universities operating illegally in the country. Coming from the ICPC rather than the National Universities Commission (NUC), this is strange. Stranger still is the fact that the belated comments of the NUC begs the question of why the institutions have been operating for so long.
The questions to ask here are: What has the NUC done, so far, to deal with this vexatious issue? Does the list of 67 illegal universities also contain the 47 universities named by the NUC in what seemed like a face-saving joint press conference with the ICPC? If we accept that the NUC has now named and shamed 47 out of the 67 illegal universities, there is still 20 more to be accounted for, based on the submission from the ICPC. It is therefore important that the NUC reveal the identities of these other 20 illegal universities. This is the only way to save unsuspecting candidates from patronising “institutions of higher learning” like Richmond Open University, Enugu, being illegally operated by one Mazi Chris Okoro, a self-appointed “professor of journalism”.
Yet what is more disturbing in all of this, especially given the subsequent chain of events, is that it inadvertently suggests that the NUC is not serious enough in its handling of the approval and regulation of universities in the country. It is a shame that it took the announcement from the ICPC for the NUC to come alive to its statutory oversight functions. Perhaps this underlines the ICPC chairman’s statement that his Commission has become involved in several possible centers of corruption because, “some persons in the society who are aware of such corruption have decided to keep quiet because they feel it cannot be handled.”
Concerning Richmond University, Enugu, it must be said in fairness that the NUC has been on a running battle with the proprietor who has been using legal loopholes to beat the system. Following the NUC’s earlier proscription of the “university” some years ago, the owner approached the court and obtained an injunction against the Commission. For some inexplicable reasons, the NUC appealed and lost. Instructively, “Professor” Okoro recently admitted that Richmond University has no business with NUC and that none of the courses offered at the “university” has NUC accreditation. In his words, “this University has been operating since 2005 [when] the court gave judgment in my favour.
The NUC went on Appeal and failed. The Richmond University has nothing to do with NUC. It was formerly called Institute of Journalism and Continuing Education. I have trained many people in this school and that is why I am a professor. I teach journalism. I am a professor of journalism.”
This is more than loose talk, because it touches on the statutory powers of the NUC to register and regulate universities in Nigeria. But, again, it seems only logical that illegal universities should flourish for as long as the available legal institutions cannot absorb the ever-surging number of candidates seeking admission. Worse still, considering that the accredited ones are patchy in the execution of their academic duties, it can only be left to the imagination what goes on in the illegal ones.
We commend the ICPC for its intervention and we urge the NUC to take drastic measures aimed at unraveling the illegal universities across the country. In addition to prosecuting the owners of such dubious academic institutions, the Commission should, as a matter of urgency, publish from time to time, especially at the commencement of every academic year, a list of “NUC Approved Universities” to guide prospective candidates.
