Edward Snowden had the vanquished institution – Ambrose Alli University – Ekpoma in focus when he said, “When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals”.
Prof Asomwan Sonnie Adagbonyin has lost his scruples to superintendent over that previously auspicious institution for a number of reasons: his double-faced, double-edged clownishness, petulant pettiness and aberrant falsehood adopted in the administration of the University is demeaning, to say the least. His tactics has been how to find a needle in a haystack, instead of finding the needle that has been hurting him in a pile of needles.
It’s regrettable that the AVC conned himself into magnificent nakedness, embracing the cloud, like the King who’s clothed in nudity. To start with, there’s a deliberate falsehood – grappling with the reality of signal-and-failure conundrum that has enveloped the institution – for sometime now. The most pathetic scenario is that as the fog of mal-administration gives way to fog of corruption, the current situation in AAU is a testament that occupying office on ground of deception will offer one result: catastrophe!
For the record, we have perforated the University administrator’s lies that tuition fees were never hiked. This is yet to be debunked by Prof Adagbonyin and his unprofessional media handlers. Here is the current school fees for Nursing Sciences as a case study in the institution’s tuition fees portal, before it was shutdown last week by the institution’s management. For a 400-level student in the last session, it amounted to N132,500, covering school fees, SUG dues, sports development fees, library development levy, student welfare assurance, and transaction charges.
Before the portal was shutdown, the new fee was captured as N242,500, marking a significant increase of N110,000. It is important to note that when proceeding with payment through COLLEGEPAY, the fee of N242,500 will increase slightly to N245,200 as a result of additional N2,700.00, categorized as Add-on charges by the payment platform. The University Management’s rationale for this additional N112,700 is that they have included N16,000 for EDO NHIS, Lab dues, and charges for online transactions. Their justification for adding the dues is to reduce student stress and avoid extra charges from the department. “This is the hiding facts and the cause of the standoff in AAU”, Students Union quipped.
Besides, here are some of the exam dues paid to designated accounts with specific amount: N5,000, Account: 1010875697 (Zenith Bank): College dues: N2,000 Account: 0051054878 (ACCESS BANK): Departmental dues: N2,000 Account: 1211611618 (Zenith Bank): Faculty dues: N2,000 Account: 1100391208 (UDA BANK), while a returning student is expected to spend a total of N11,000 on dues in a session. At the last matriculation ceremony, Professor Adagboyin as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University, stated that over 4,000 students were matriculating, implying that they paid tuition fees. If 4,000 students paid fees, it means that 4,000 paid for EDO NHIS, totaling N64,000,000 (Sixty Four Million Naira) only. This calculation excludes returning students who were forced to pay.
For instance, 400L students paid for EDO NHIS in their 300L, contrary to the agreement of only 100 Level. This act is considered fraudulent and against the Agreement. The question arises: what has changed in the University Health Center, and can the promises stated on the official website be fulfilled in that clinic, which is the primary point of contact for every student? Additionally, some students are registered members of the individual plan of N12,000 yearly on the EDO NHIS, while others are children of civil servants who automatically paid for the scheme via salary deduction. Charging them an additional N16,000 is akin to double registration, given the economic hardship in the country.
The Students Union pokes the school management for shifting the goal post in the middle of the game. “In the MoU, the management and the Union agreed that the Access card would be a one-time payment of N4,450, serving as a student ID card, which is a smart card. However, it has become unfortunate that the Access card is now being paid for every session. A smart card is a small plastic card with an embedded integrated circuit chip, capable of storing and processing data”. The Students Union demanded the reversal to the initial agreement of a one-time payment of N4,450 and to immediately remove it from the university portal. They also requested that the payment for smart cards be halted and the N4,500 payment be put on hold until the smart cards are delivered.
One of the deliberate frauds recorded is the memo ISSN 0794-06341 mandating students to pay school fees through the portal aauportal.school, where students have experienced several complaints. They reported to the bank, which confirmed that the money was paid into the university account. However, the website refused to update the payment, and the ICT staff ordered them to make fresh payments, causing frustration and financial strain. In one instance, a female student was forced to repay another fee when the portal aauwaeup.org came into play. This is just one of several complaints by many students, as we have several students whose fees are hanging due to the old portal, which we call FRAUD. This issue has caused many final-year students some delay in clearance and others.
On July 5, 2022, the Provost of the College of Medicine mandated all medicine students to pay N50,000 each as contribution to the construction of a university hostel. After much agitation, students complied. However, upon completion of the project, the hostel fee was set at N150,000 per space and a N20,000 caution fee, which brings the total to N170,000 in a different session (3-4 in a room).
The question is why has the state government not obtained a statement directly from the bank regarding the total number of students who paid and assessed the project executed with the money? Why will the students be exposed to multiple exploitation with the increasement of hostel fees for students who paid the N50,000 for the infrastructure? How come it is the University’s students that are building hostels for the University where they’re meant to pay rents?
On the 31st of January 2023, the university released a memo asking students to pay the sum of N7,000 (Seven Thousand Naira) only, for JAMB regularization, and after a few months, they released another memo asking students to come for a refund. Besides, the fact that many students are yet to get a refund, the JAMB authority has reiterated that there is an outstanding debt against the University; hence students from the institution won’t be attended to. Several reports have been made to the registrar, but defenses like “it is not peculiar to AAU alone” and “we are on it” have always been the defense.
Up till this moment, the Acting Vice Chancellor has not deemed it fit to contact JAMB directly to know the fact. Instead, the University Management is playing games with the future of the students. That the University Management had to make students to pay for accreditation of their departments is the most bizarre adventure I have heard in university administration globally. Accreditation of departments is the sole responsibility of the University authorities, including the Visitor, the Governing Council, and University Management. To put the burden on students is completely fraudulent. And it’s even shocking that students pay this so-called accreditation fee every session.
The general public should make simple arithmetic out of this: if 35,000 students paid N3000 (Three Thousand Naira) only each, whether the total wouldn’t amount to N105,000,000 (One-Hundred and Five million Naira) only? If you multiplied it by four for a four-year course students, that’s humongous N420,000,000 (Four Hundred and Twenty Million Naira) only, whereas accreditation of departments are not done every year. 35,000 students are merest of conservative estimate, because the actual who paid in the old portal recorded students numbers as 42,050 during the beginning of school section.
This is the making of a rogue institution which has been harassing, extorting from hapless and helpless students under the guise of ministering primitive education with hideous criminal abridgement of their rights to a grave and grieving standpoint. I reckon with the antics of the old hell-raiser and itinerant Professor, who has adopted ancient ritual of medieval tertiary institutional management with comic ferocity.
Prof Adagbonyin has committed a punitive act of self-flagellation and I understand why he added me to his malignant menu. One should have expected that the old Professor should have come to reason not to be counted among the predators who brought Ambrose Alli University to its knees.
My initial position was never to cotton in, forejudge or forecast until the literary dabblers and sundry dilettantes elected to paper the crack walls of fraud in AAU, leaving the damp squib to a dismal dejection. My points and positions are clear – Edo people wouldn’t allow putrid purveyors of illiteracy, graft perpetuators to have a feed day at the detriment of civilized humanity!
Erasmus Ikhide contributed this piece via: ikhideluckyerasmus@gmail.com
