In December 2022, some students of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, took their final year examination, which they should have done over one year earlier.

The exercise was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which made Nigerian students lose one academic season.

Therefore, when in December last year the students sat for their final year exams, their joy was indescribable. Parents were also happy that their children were concluding an important phase of their life.

However, the joy of the students leaving MOUAU anytime after their final exams appears dashed.

In other institutions, it takes only weeks for results to start coming out after exams are concluded, but not in MOUAU, where for almost eight months after exam some students are yet to see their final year results.

Some of the students who spoke to Daily Sun on the condition of anonymity for fear of being victimized revealed how, after almost eight months since they finished their final year exams the results were yet to be released.

One of the affected final-year students from the department of Agronomy said: “We took our final year exam in December 2022 after spending extra academic year in school as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the eight months ASUU strike, which affected academic activities in Nigeria.

“But we are totally surprised that eight months after our final year exam, the institution’s authorities are yet to release our results. No official reason has been given for the delay in releasing the results.

“With the non-release of our final year exam result since December by the authorities of the institution, we, the affected students, were left at the mercy of some greedy lecturers who have been ripping us off”.

The situation has now turned MOUAU into a “Pay-as-you-view-your-result institution”, with the students alleging that lecturers now ask them to pay between N10,000 and N20,000 for them to be shown the result of a given paper.

Another final-year student from the department Microbiology said: “It appears it is now a crime to gain admission into MOUAU. After suffering so many things, including the loss of one academic year as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the ASUU strike, MOUAU authorities could not have pity on us to release the result of our final exam and no official explanation has been given for that delay.

“To make matters worse, some lecturers are cashing in on this to rip off the students. As we speak, some lecturers are collecting between N10,000 and N20,000 from each final-year student to let them have a view of what they scored in the lecturer’s course and many of us do not have such amounts to view the result of a particular course, not when battling with the problem of feeding while still awaiting when the result will be released.”

This student is worried that his mates in other institutions are now serving or preparing for the mandatory one-year National Youth Service programme, and they at MOUAU were yet to get their final result released by the institution.

“My worry is that our mates in other institutions in the country are now preparing for their NYSC programme, but here, we are still waiting on the authorities to release our result,” he lamented.

If the other students had painful stories to tell about their experiences, that of a female student was touchy. The student, of the department of Statistics and poor daughter of a farmer, said her parents went through hell to train her to her final year, only to be faced with the non-release of her result.

To add insult to injury, the student said the demand by many of the lecturers on students to view the result of the courses they handle was out of reach for her.

She said: “It is not a thing of joy that after nearly eight months after our final year exam authorities of the institution are yet to release our result when our mates in other institutions across the country are preparing for their NYSC programme.

“To make manners worse for some of us, activities of many of our lecturers who cashed in on this anomaly to rip off the students should be totally condemned.

“It is unheard of that lecturers would be asking students to pay between N10,000 and N20,000 to be allowed to see the result of a particular course. You know what this means for any female student who cannot afford the money. For me, I am in a total fix, I have not seen the result of a single course because I don’t have the money to pay and I cannot trade my body with the viewing of any of my final-year course results. It is very unfortunate this is happening in MOUAU of all universities”.

Some of the parents of the students who spoke to Daily Sun, threatened to drag MOUAU to court, if the institution does not release the results of the students.

Ejime, father of one of the students, said: “It is quite unbelievable that our children would take their final year exam since December last year and up till now, eight months after, the institution is yet to release the results”.

Ejime said, if a body like JAMB could conduct exam involving millions of candidates and release the result after a few days, he wondered why MOUAU could conduct exam that involved fewer than 500 students, yet was unable to release the results eight months after.

He said parents of the students have concluded plans to take the institution to court, if they refuse to release the result without further delay.

Other parents who spoke to the reporter on the issue corroborated what Ejime said, adding they were ready to pursue the matter to its logical conclusion.

When contacted, the public relations officer of the institution, Adanma Odefa, declined comment and directed the reporter to the vice-chancellor, who could not be reached.

However, a lecturer in the university, who pleaded anonymity said the allegation against some of his colleagues was true. He said: “There are criminals in the system. They do all manner of things for money. I know of a bank manager who completed his doctorate degree programme and his result was held on to. The reason given was that his scripts were missing. He only succeed because of his connections. It’s a very bad development, casting all of us in bad light.” (Daily Sun)

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