What could delay a student’s certificate for a whole nine years, even when she has fulfilled all requirements? This is the question the management of University of Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State needs to answer, as one of their students in a degree programme done in conjunction with Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun (OSSCEILA), is alleging that the delay is costing her more than she can endure. The student, Rukayat Olayemi Ajao, spoke with Gboyega Alaka.
RUKAYAT Olayemi Ajao a former student of Political Science (Education) of Osun State College of Education degree programme affiliated with the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State is currently distraught and calling on the officers of the university to release her degree certificate nine years after she graduated.
Ajao, with matriculation number: 03/ED1/EF/183; said she enrolled for a degree programme in 2004, graduated in 2010 and served in Cross River State in 2012. However, nine years down the line, she is yet to be given her certificate, even though the school acknowledged that she fulfilled all requirements by giving her the temporary statement of result.
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“I was issued a statement of result, with a pledge that our certificates would be ready in due course. I went back in 2014, they said it was not ready; thereafter, I didn’t go there for some time, since I had no job and had no means of moving around. Sometime in 2018, I was processing a job online and they asked for my certificate; I went over to Ila Orangun, but they again told me it was not ready. Since then I’ve been going there to request for my certificate but they’ve always told me, ‘It is not ready.’ They’d tell me to write my name and other details but the story has not changed.
“At one time, they gave me an attestation letter in lieu, but the problem now is that the Lagos State Local Government Service, with which I currently work, has insisted that it’s either my certificate or nothing. Earlier this year, they summoned me to present my certificate, because it was not in my file. They warned me that I would not be eligible for promotion unless I presented it. I went back in April this year but I did not see the provost. However, the officer in charge of the programme told me they were working on it; that they would call the registrar in Uyo and that I should exercise patience. Again they collected my details, offered to give me another confirmation letter, but I told them my office was not interested in any other letter other than the certificate. The explanation they have given me is that there was a fire incident. The question therefore is, for how long will I wait? Are they saying my certificate has gone with the fire? To make matters worse, I cannot go to UNIUYO to demand for my certificate directly, because they will only deal with my college.
“True to the warning of my employers, the promotion exam/exercise is ongoing (July 5) as I speak to you but I am not part of it,” Ajao said.
Asked if she has made any effort to reach out to the Lagos State officials in charge of promotion to explain her case, Ajao said: “I went to see the director-in-charge at the commission, but he said ‘no,’ that the order was from above because of past experiences of people presenting fake credentials.”
On whether she knew of any member of her set, who has collected their certificate, Ajao said yes. She said she knows some of her course mates who finished the same year as her, who have collected their certificate; likewise those who have not. My appeal as I came here is to the management of the University of Uyo to please release my certificate. The situation has become an embarrassment to me, with people openly wondering if I indeed graduated from the school. Somebody even said it to my face that, “What kind of school did you attend that you don’t have a certificate ten years after?”
We’re reaching out to UNIUYO on the matter – OSSCEILA
When The Nation reached out to some officials of Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun (OSSCEILA), where Ajao did her NCE as well as her degree programme in affiliation with the University of Uyo, none were willing to make any statement on ground of being civil servants.
However, after some persuasion, one of the officials who pleaded for anonymity said he was aware of Ajao’s predicament but said the delay in releasing her certificate does not lie with the college but with owners of the programme, University of Uyo.
He said, “We are ready to assist, just that there was a fire incident at the University of Uyo; but we’ve reached out to them and they told us it has been rectified and promised to release the certificates soon. Unfortunately, we have not been able travel to Uyo because of insecurity.”
Asked how come some of Ajao’s mates have collected their certificates while has not, the official said: “Indeed the problem is not peculiar to Ajao. The last time we compiled the list, they were well above 600 names that are yet to collect their certificates. I even know a student who finished in 2002 and is suffering the same fate. Meanwhile, I also know a student who finished three years after Ajao who has collected her certificate. So we really don’t understand the pattern they use in printing certificates over there. In our own case at OSSCEILA, we use the graduating list to write the certificates.”
The official however maintained that Ajao’s certificate, as well as others’ would soon be out, as they are not relenting.
Source: The Nation Newspaper
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