BY DELE SOBOWALE

“History never repeats itself; man does.” Barbara Tuchmann, Expert on 13th and 14th Centuries European History.

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Please can you tell me the best Private University where my daughter can go to study Medicine?

What Professor Tuchmann said in academic language, P.T. Barnum, 1810-1891, the American Circus master,
of two centuries ago, repeated in more down to earth language. According to him, “There is a sucker [fool] born every minute.”

If it takes God’s Own Country up to sixty seconds to bring forth a fool into the world, then the Giant of Africa must be delivering them at a faster rate. Nothing proves this more than the number of applicants and parents who waste millions of naira, every year, obtaining enrollment into universities in Nigeria to read medicine when the courses are not accredited.

A few weeks ago, a wise father, unlike most whose money is burning a hole through their pockets, sent me a text message asking me to recommend a private university offering Medicine to which his daughter should seek enrollment.

To me, it was a welcome development. Only once, since this series of columns started, had a prospective student or guardian asked questions first, instead of regretting later. I was to glad to assist. But before revealing the outcome of my search, let me remind our readers of the situation in Nigeria today about universities offering expensive professional courses – medicine, law, engineering, architecture – to mention the most common ones.

Provisional Approval and its Consequences
The National University Commission, NUC, from time to time grants provisional accreditation to universities wanting to commence courses in certain disciplines – even when they have not fully complied with the requirements for offering those courses. Medicine and Law are the most notorious for this practice.

Unfortunately, for prospective students and guardians, the universities immediately start admitting students for those courses. Problems start, when, after the stipulated time, students have put in the required number of years, without the university fulfilling the requirements for accreditation.

In effect, what some of our universities, private and public, had done, and some are still doing, would be considered 419 if the criminal acts were perpetrated by ordinary con men.
Of the three first generation private universities [names withheld], two had established Colleges of Medicine more than ten years ago. Each of them had “graduated” at least two batches of “doctors”.

There is only one problem. The “graduates are inadmissible for the National Youth Service; neither can they undergo housemanship anywhere in Nigeria because the “certificates” they hold, while expensively procured, in terms of sweat, tears and money, are more worthless than tissue paper. Yet, the authorities of those universities, pillars of society, including those who accuse those in government of corruption, have entered into a conspiracy of silence – while  the scam continues.

Recently, one university placed an advertisement in a national newspaper with respect to students to which it had offered admission to read Law. After years of squabbling with the NUC about accreditation, the university closed down its Law School – leaving many students in a quandary about their future. Naturally, the university promised to find accommodation for those willing in other universities.