University Graduate Cries Out, Says His School's Refusal to Release His Certificate has Cost him Jobs

Cursory: An Alumni of Olabisi Onabanjo University has cried out for help after his certificate was denied him for 16 years. According to the distraught man, he had made countless efforts to rectify whatever issue he had but the school has not been of much help as they kept ignoring him. The school has however replied, stating that they are meticulously looking into the case to hopefully rectify it soon.

Former Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State student Adeolu Akintoye (not actual name) has described how the school refused to award his diploma 16 years after he graduated.

Akintoye completed his degree in 2007 in the department of Educational Foundations and Management (EFM). But despite numerous requests, he never received his certificate.

In his conversation with FIJ, he revealed that after earning his degree, he realized that several of his scripts were missing, which prevented some of his classes from receiving scores.

“Upon the collection of my result, I discovered that some of my courses were not awarded scores owing to missing scripts. I made several efforts to find those scores but to no avail,” Akintoye said.

After several unsuccessful tries to get his certificate, Akintoye had to reinstate his studentship in the Arts and Social Sciences Education (ASSED) department of the institution’s Centre for Continuing Education, in 2015.

“I was left with no option but to reinstate my studentship in order to resit those courses in the 2015/2016 session. Since then my department has not processed my result for collection,” Akintoye said.

“I have sat for the courses and the scores are with my Head of Department. They have all my scores now. I wouldn’t know why they are yet to process my result for collection.”

Ayodeji Ifegbesan was ASSED’s Head of Department (HOD) at the time of the reinstatement, according to information obtained by FIJ.

When it came time to process his results for collection, Akintoye made numerous attempts to get in touch with Ifegbesan and other departmental officials, but he ran into administrative bottlenecks and wasn’t even given a chance to speak with them until Ifegbesan quit his position.

Akintoye did point out that Oluwayomi Oladunjoye, the current HOD at ASSED, had made attempts to assist since he took office a number of years ago.

He added that despite the letters given to the school administration, nothing had been done, according to FIJ.

“All they keep telling me is that my case is receiving attention, that I should exercise patience.”

Akintoye expressed dissatisfaction with how the institution has handled the situation and said that he lost his job because of their carelessness.

He pointed out that this occurrence was not the first of its kind; he had to leave other employment opportunities because of he wasn’t able to produce the certificate.

When FIJ contacted Oladunjoye on Wednesday, April 19, he said that the university management was aware of the situation and that a committee had been set up to address it.

“The issue is complex. We are not denying that he came to school here. We are still finding the truth concerning what happened with the results,” Oladunjoye said.

When further asked about the complexity, he said,

“the complexity has to do with finding the Senate-approved results. What we saw was not the Senate-approved results for his cohort.

“I was not the HOD when the issue happened; there are many people with that kind of case and the university has set up a committee and different faculties to search for their results.”

Ifegbesan was approached by FIJ on Thursday with the same issue, but he choose not to respond.As of the time of publication, the Exams and Records Unit of OOU has not replied to FIJ’s messages. The institution’s registrar, Olufemi Ayodele, has likewise been impossible to reach.