By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Senate Deputy Whip, Senator Nwebonyi Onyeka Peter has accused Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) of conspiracy in what he described as “career fraud” against Miss Chinyere Ekwe.
The senator representing Ebonyi North senatorial district said a situation where qualified students are given admission only to turn around and swap the course is a crime and unacceptable in this new Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu.
Senator Nwebonyi stated this on Wednesday while fielding questions from newsmen against the backdrop of his motion on “urgent need to curtail the practice of undisclosed admissions and other unwholesome practices by JAMB and Universities, particularly the UNN.”
According to the federal lawmaker, the complainant in question, Miss Chinyere Ekwe who wrote JAMB in 2019 scored 291 and also wrote the internal University exam and scored 300 as against 400 and qualified to study Medicine and Surgery having scored above the requirement of JAMB and University. He hinted that Chinyere was given admission by UNN and she paid her fees, resumed lectures and had even written some exams. Amazingly, thereafter, she was asked to go Medical Labouratory which she never applied for and without any cogent reason. To us, we see this as career fraud and unacceptable.
The Ebonyi Senator and high ranking member of the Nigerian Bar stressed that the idea of hanging peoples hope, especially when they are qualified and when such people have been given admission is a crime as far as he is concerned.
He therefore called on authorities and relevant committee of the Senate to investigate this weighty allegation because this is not affecting Miss Chinyere Ekwe alone, it is affecting over other 290 students of UNN and i know what is happening in UNN may be happening in other universities.
Presenting the motion on the floor of the Red Chambers, Sen. Onyeka Peter had informed his colleagues that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was established in 1978, originally, with the mandate to regulate admissions into Nigeria Universities through the university matriculation examination (UME);
He also noted that the duties of JAMB were later expanded to include regulating admissions into other higher or tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria, prompting the change of nomenclature of the entrance examination from the UME to the United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), to include entrance into Nigerian universities, polytechnics, mono-technics, and colleges of education,
However, he said, JAME initially offer provisional admissions into tertiary institutions on awaiting result status but stopped it on the ground that many applicants who were offered such admissions abused the awaiting result life-line by not obtaining the qualifying results for the admissions till their graduation:
According to him, “the authorities of Tertiary Institutions, in cahoots with some JAMB officials have reverted to the practice of provisional admissions into prized professional courses like medicine and surgery, pharmacy, law, Engineering nursing science, etc. with view to shortchanging some students already offered admission in exchange for gratification
“The travails of one Miss Chinyere Ekwe and 290 others who were admitted to study medicine and surgery at the University of Nigeria Nsukka but had their admissions truncated on the order of JAMB for no plausible reason, after they had completed the admission processes and resumed lectures. Miss Ekwe in particular, scored 291 in the 2019 UTME and 300 in the university’s post UTME which qualified her for the course, and was subsequently admitted by the university:
“The said Chinyere Ekwe was transferred to the department of medical laboratory science on the ground that if her cumulative grade point is up to 4.5 points after the first year, she would be transferred back to medicine and surgery. However, despite the fact that she surpassed the 4.5 threshold, her admission status is still not yet certain as to whether she is duly admitted in the department of medicine and surgery or medical laboratory science;”
Sen. Onyeka Peter expressed worried that the provisional admission practice is being used as a malicious tool to exploit and frustrate intelligent young Nigerians who are children and wards of ordinary people, who seek admission into Nigerian Universities.
The federal lawmaker who vowed to make sure justice is done, said this is a new Nigeria and things must be done rightly and that the development we can give to our next generation is to give our children quality education.
