NUC Clampdown On Illegal University In Delta, Arrests 3 Staff
The Nigeria University Commission (NUC) has closed down an illegal university, World Mission University, West Africa, for operating without license in Abraka, Delta State.
The University was shut down for not obtaining approval from UNC before operating in the country while its over 20 courses have not also received accreditation from the apex body which is backed by law to kerb universities operating without authorization.
Speaking with journalists shortly after the NUC team closed down the illegal institution, the coordinator of the committee on the closure of illegal universities in Nigeria and head of legal department, NUC, Barr. Moses Awe, said operating an institution in Nigeria has become a notorious menace in country despite the efforts of both the federal and state governments in expanding access to the university education.
Barr. Awe said, “You are aware that as of today in Nigeria now, we have over 140 universities with the proprietorship of federal and state universities. You are also aware of the national Open University which is also an extension of expanded access”.
“So, any student that has the requisite qualification can apply and definitely you will get admission, if you are qualified. So, there is no basis whatsoever for all these mushroom illegal schools and unfortunately, this is a place that is said to be a mission organization but running degree programmes under different cover of scholarships and empowerment”, he lamented, adding, “we have been monitoring this outfit for more than six to seven months”.
“And we have confirmed affirmatively that they have been running degree programmes even ridiculously in the medical sciences like you see today they are even running nursing. As you can see in this environment. Where is the medical hospital? Where is the structure for degree programme? The so-called affiliation to the international body is just a cover, there is no basis for it. We don’t know them even at the NUC, so that is just the basis why we are here today to put a stop to this deceit to our young people in Delta State and in Nigeria in general”.
He noted that the body has been going round for the past 10 years, constantly engaging in public enlightenment on Nigerians, parents and prospective degree students, “in Nigeria that they should not approach illegal universities and we as responsible organization with mandate of law to protect integrity of qualification of degree in Nigeria, we have been doing our best to tell every Nigeria that don’t approach fake institutions that are not approved for degree programmes”.
“So, if on your own you decided to jettison all these enlightenment and to make a choice of illegal university, then you should be able to bear the consequence. Imagine a nursing student that is trained in this kind of place and he handles you medically, he will kill you with injections. What kind of products do you want to produce from this kind of place? He asked.
The coordinator stated that students from such illegal Universities are unmanageable, “they are not manageable at all. So, they should go and commence their programmes in a proper institution”, he said.
According to him, “As I am talking to you now, we have over 60 private universities that has been licensed by NUC and more are still on board. As many that are qualified and meets our criteria, we have a law and that law is a public document. It states what a person should do before he will be given license. It is not a secret thing. It not a cultist activity, it is in the law and as many applicant that meet the requirement has been given license but this institution we are today in Abraka is not known to us, they have not approach NUC and they are about to graduate students as we have heard.
He revealed that in the last one year, the body has closed about six illegal universities across country, “most of them are within Abuja and the neighbouring states. You know that these things depend on information. Like this one that we are now, it is one of the students that brought the information to us that he has been given admission in a school and he asked to know if the school is approved. That is how we got to know. Sometimes the security agencies gives us information”.
“It is not that we have them in our pockets. Some of them you discover them now, tomorrow they are in another place, they move like that. They are very nomadic and this one even has multiple campuses. As you are aware these ICPC and NUC collaboration has been of help. In 2014 we went round the whole country and we closed down over 25 illegal universities and we have been monitoring them. Some of them resurfaced and we brought them to book while some of them have complied with our closure order”.
“Investigation are on because the main people that we target are the proprietors, the movers. Some of them in the process of the closure, the proprietors were not arrested but subsequently they were arrested but we have cases in court now. Preceding this year, there are some cases that are already going on. As I am telling you now, we have more than 10 cases that are ongoing in court”.
In her response, the Mission Partner (MP) Pastor Hanna Lucky of the World Mission University West Africa said, “What we do here is to enable people obtain international scholarship. I registered with CAC, I am not operating a university, I create training centre. I am not recruiting students but until we get to a campus level which we are about developing now”.
Pastor Lucky said the school teaches their students with volunteer lecturers, “We made inquiries and we were told that when a site is in the process of development to offer Nigerian certificate then we will now apply to NUC”.