A student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun state on Tuesday took to his social media platform to express bitterly his ordeal in the hands of the school authorities.
In his series of posts on Facebook, Adeyemi Oluwatosin, recounts how his academic journey was going smooth in school until his fourth year.
”Ever since I gained admission into Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), I made a conscious effort not to failed any course, in order to graduate at the appropriate time but however my hope of graduating at the appropriate time was dashed as I failed a course codenamed CRP 404 (Agricultural meteorology), it came as a surprise to me, considering my academic record of keeping a clean sheet.
”Things were further made complicated for me when the school management made a draconic policy of ‘no waiving of course’, even though if it is one unit course. Based on this policy, I wrote a letter on the 7th of November, 2018 to the school management to apply for pro-rata payment of school fees and request to register for the CRP 404 outstanding course, as the new school protocol implies and these separate letters were approved for me on the 19th march, 2019 and 21st march, 2019 respectively.”
Oluwatosin claimed that he was made to pay the sum of N54,078.00 as approved on his student portal as a part school fees for students with an added year.
”By the time I checked my portal 3 days after to register for the course, I observed that another N7,686.00 has been added, and as I attempted to pay the additional school fees, I realized that the portal for the payment of school fees has been closed.”
Moreover, Adeyemi said that despite having to meet unpaid extra fees on his student portal he quickly went ahead to pay them.
”Even after the second payment, the money doesn’t still reflect on my portal till the day I resat for the exam of the course but I discovered that the fees reflect after my examination. I felt a sigh of relief because I taught this would not give me a problem.”
”I was expecting my result, when other students started seeing theirs and this was giving me a lot of concern, I then made a verbal complaint to my HOD, whom we went to go and see the ICT director together. The ICT director then said what shock me; he said ‘I didn’t enrol for the session’. I then staged a lone protest to my campus in order to draw the attention of the campus management to my plights. In the light of this; I was advised to apply for late enrolment which I did on the 16th October 2019 but it was not approved and I was then advised by the management to retake the outstanding course at the next available opportunity, even though I did the exam and passed it.
”This dejected me, I was physically and psychologically down and depressed, I was deeply faced with psychological trauma; not because I was advised to retake the course but because of the thought of what I passed through during the registration process. It was better imagined than experienced. The thought of this makes me cry because, throughout the session, I was transiting between Ago-Iwoye (Main campus) and Ayetoro (Agric. Sci. campus) throughout the session, just to make sure the issue was rectified, even when the session was going on. If I was not at Ayetoro to attend the class, I would be at Ago-iwoye to monitor the progress of the issues. During this period, I fell sick more than four times, because of the physical and mental stress I was subjected to, as a result of the dysfunctional system. The thought of committing suicide was not far from my mind, if not because of the people that God used for me.”
Oluwatosin insisted that he passed the course in question.
”I once again accepted to retake the course because of their promise of using the 2018/2019 session school fees for 2019/2020 session and I wrote a letter to that effect, so as to provide me with a written document to back it up and also to effect the change on my portal but it is unfortunate that since I have written the letter on the 19th November, 2019; nothing has being done about it. I am back to square one; the situation is not in any way different from that of the last session.”
A video of his protest at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Aiyetoro Campus, Ogun state:
The student disclosed that in a few time a new semester will begin and thee school portal is closed.
”if this is delayed further, I’m afraid that my hope of mobilization for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme may be at risk due to my age which is 29 years old. All my colleagues have finish service and here I am, with a 2 unit course still battling with my future. As a result of this dysfunctional system, I have lost a lot of opportunities such as opportunity of getting a job,” Adeyemi lamented.
”Right now, I don’t know if there is any hope for me. My future is at risk; my life is being jeopardized because of this issue. I am fed up. I’m appealing to the university management to either upload my CRP 404 result which I’m sure that I passed or make good their promise by effecting my school fees and my course registration on my portal so that I can focus on retaking the course because I can’t afford not to graduate this year again and I can’t afford to miss the service. My life depends on this.”
”The school made a stringent policy against any negligence on the part of the student and the student actually suffered for it but who would suffer for faulty system of the school? It’s still the students. This policy is anti-human. It’s killing me.”
