Higher Education Crises, Harassment Cases, Hurried Closures and Heightened Calls for Impeachment
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC just donated over N500M to Nigerian Universities and higher institutions across the nation to facilitate innovations, research, and enhance development in the telecommunications sector.
However, it is hard for these university students to benefit from interventions like this when ASUU has just indicated that its industrial strike will keep them out of school for another 4 weeks.
On the other hand, those seeking to be admitted face uneven cut-off marks by different Universities. While JAMB has set a score of 140 as the minimum for a student to be eligible for admission through the 2022 examinations, its registrar indicated that over 50% of Nigerian Universities have already indicated a cut-off score of 200.
The exclusion of students with lower UTME scores from higher education through the university may have become more complicated with the scrapping of the Higher National Diploma (HND) in Polytechnics.
The HND afforded candidates admitted for the Ordinary National Diploma (OND), usually with lesser UTME scores, the chance to pursue an official equivalent of the university degree after completing their OND.
Now that the HND route is over, will candidates with lower scores be kept from obtaining University degrees or the cut-off bar for admission to Universities be lowered to accommodate candidates with lower UTME scores?
However, the University of Ibadan announced that students with low marks in the last UTME and those who did not sit the last UTME could be admitted via its Open Distance e-Learning Centre.
“They would be issued the same certificates as the university and be mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps like their colleagues who were admitted for the regular programmes of the university”, the Centre Director said. Only 21% of the 2022 UTME Candidates scored more than 200 marks of a total of 400 marks.
Sexual Harassment Cases
The plight of Nigerians pursuing degrees and diplomas in the country’s higher institutions goes beyond admission difficulties.
When they eventually scale the hurdle of admissions and are not kept out of school by the industrial actions of their school's academic and non-academic staff, they still learn amidst unrelenting sexual harassment from the institutions’ staff.
While most of the reported cases relate to the sexual victimisation of female students by their lecturers, an underreported form of sexual harassment in Nigerian tertiary institutions was reported this week. This involved a male staff and a female staff of the University of Lagos.
Hurried Closures: Schools, CVR, and Air Fleet
Last week, the Federal Capital Territory Education Secretariat directed all private schools to shut down on Wednesday.
This followed the federal government’s hurried closure of Federal Government College Kwali, after a reported terrorist attack on the neighbouring Sheda community in Kwali Area Council.
There have been increased security threats in the FCT and other states since the Kuje jailbreak.
Likewise, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) closed voter registration on Sunday, even though it tagged the task as “continuous voter registration”.
Nigerians who could not register in the discontinued Continuous Voter Registration (CRV) exercise expressed displeasure over the unyielding nature of INEC to continue the registration process.
Source: INEC
INEC registered Eighty-four million, Four thousand and Eighty-four (84,004,084) persons before it discontinued the registration.
The electoral body has ignored the people’s call for an extension, referring to when registration started in June 2021.
Instead, it assured that Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) of individuals already captured in the CRV exercise would be ready between October and November.
The electoral umpire planned to close the registration exercise on June 30, 2022. Still, it could not because a suit before the Federal High Court filed by a civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, on June 5 had required an extension.
The aviation industry faces a shutdown too. This is caused by the decline in domestic flights, as only 38 out of 90 aeroplanes remain active. This came because of the loss of fleet capacity.
Earlier, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) suspended Dana Airlines’ Air Transport Licence (ATL) and Air Operator Certificate (AOC) indefinitely.
The following observations have been made:
Air Peace, Arik, Azman operate at 38.8% fleet capacity
Hurdles for air travellers as over 30 per cent are underserved
Operators blame lack of foreign exchange for maintenance
Sirika’s Aviation Roadmap fails to deliver on promises seven years on
Industry needs new policy direction to survive, stakeholders say
Only four of 22 airports are viable
While the aviation industry’s contribution to National GDP is very small, Mobolaji Stephens and his colleagues noted that it contributes a lot towards ensuring the smooth flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Nigeria.
Curiously, on the crippling effect of the high exchange rate on the aviation sector, among others, an Akure-based preacher, Prophet Samson Oluwamodede, prophesied an outburst in the Nigerian economy, saying the Dollar would soon exchange for N10.
Heightened Calls for President Buhari’s Impeachment
There are increased calls to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari, following ISWAPs claim of a series of attacks in and around Abuja, the country's capital, that led to the killing of 8 soldiers among those injured.
However, the Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso has admonished members of the National Assembly to apply caution on the threat to impeach Nigeria’s President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.), over widespread insecurity across the country.
Following threats of more devastating attacks on the Federal Capital Territory and five other states, including Lagos, the Lagos State Police Command said it had placed its officers on red alert, alongside the NSCDC and other sister agencies, to forestall the outlaws “destabilising the peace and serenity enjoyed by the good people of Lagos State”.
Notwithstanding, the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has put on hold the Lagos-Kano and Ajaokuta train services over fears of terrorist attacks. Sources within the Ministry of Transportation and NRC confirmed that services might not resume anytime soon until safety is guaranteed within the stipulated routes.
However, the Federal Government of Nigeria has apprehended four Informants over the Kuje jailbreak of July 5. An intelligence officer said they are being interrogated to ascertain their involvement with terrorists, bandits, and other unscrupulous elements.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking global collaboration in curbing the menace caused by terrorists, bandits, and others.