The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, has admonished Nigerian universities to always make sure that the class of degrees awarded to students, at the end of their programmes, were accurate and reflected the true class they earned.
Speaking at the hearing of a petition against Ekiti State University (EKSU) by the Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC), the Executive Secretary, who was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary 1, Professor Chiedu Mafiana, told the representative of the University, that the Commission received a letter from the NNPC Retail Limited to intervene in its problem with the EKSU in providing the necessary information needed to ascertain the true class of degree its staff Mr. Oladapo Oluwole Adama, who made the grade of Second class lower division, but was issued a Second class upper certificate in 1994 when he graduated.
The NUC Scribe requested to know why the process had been delayed for two months, the mechanism they were putting in place to stop further error and, most importantly, the circumstances under which Mr. Adama’s degree was awarded.
He also advised that the University should keep accurate records of its students and assign an official the responsibility of ensuring that the right classes of degrees were always awarded and issued out, in order to protect the University’s integrity.
Responding, the leader of the delegation from EKSU and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development) Professor O.V Adeoluwa, pointed that the error was actually made while the University was formerly Ondo State University, and that the Vice-Chancellor and Registrar, as at the time, had left the Institution 20 years ago and there was a bit difficulty reaching them.
He explained that it was a human error and that after going through the University records, it was discovered that Mr. Adama’s Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) was 2.76, which qualified him for a second class lower, but that there was an error when the certificate was issued to him.
He said that due to the Institution’s large population and the number of years involved, it had been difficult for the University to sort out the issue.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor particularly stressed that since the error was made when the University was Ondo State University and since the staff involved were no longer in the University, not much could be done by way of sanction.
Professor Adeoluwa, however, said that EKSU had withdrawn the wrong certificate from Mr. Adama and issued him the correct one.
He promised that henceforth, EKSU would not be involved in such a problem and would ensure that the Institution’s Examinations and Records Unit kept accurate records.
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