Accreditation: Again, NUC boss accuses VCs of patronising scammers
The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, for the second time in the week, took on the Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities, this time accusing them of seeking the accreditation of the courses through the backdoor and their patronage of scammers who often promises them of acting on behalf of the commission
Abdul Rasheed, who spoke on Thursday during the commissions’ meeting with Directors of Academic Planning of Nigerian universities in Abuja, said he has been inundated by distress calls from Vice Chancellors who often claim receiving letters allegedly emanating from the commission, promising them speedy accreditation of their coursers and concessions if they could pay a certain amount of money. He further added that some VCs even pay between N3.5 to N7 million to the fraudsters before realising their folly.
He said ’’NUC does not request varsities to make payment other than through TSA or CBN Remita account for the processing of accreditation. Before you make any payment please consult your director of academic planning, if anybody call you even by phone please verify before complying.iam am tired and sick of these complains’’
“ We will not grant concession to anybody; every varsity must earn its accreditation. Every university will have to go through the process of accreditation. If we ask you for any payment, we will give you a Remita account.”
The NUC boss also stressed the need for Nigerian Universities to start producing data of their staffs, graduates, those admitted and number of students per course study to the commission.
He indicated that a lot of universities in the world have been updating records of their staffs and students, adding that the power of data could be harnessed to address some vital issues in the country.
He said: “It is very sad that we don’t have a data of activities about our universities. We are losing a lot in the international community because of lack of accurate data.
“We will invite people from all Nigerian universities on how we can generate reliable and accurate data for Nigerian universities,” he added.
The NUC boss who described the Academic Planners as the engine room of universities also stressed the need of the meeting, saying it is the first time the commission is meeting with Academic Planners of Nigerian universities on such purpose.
Professor Rasheed similarly revealed that the discipline of computing has now being formerly approved for the universities. According to him, university that has the facilities will be allowed to run the programme.
Augustine Okezie, Abuja
