UNIBEN Faces Backlash for Reportedly Removing Graduate from Graduation List

Cursory: A student at the University of Benin, has allegedly been denied graduation for questioning the university’s utilization of funds. His criticism of increased school fees and inquiries about the university’s allocation of funds led to his name being removed from the list of graduating students. Other students are threatening to protest and shut down the school in response.

UNIBEN has declined to award a graduation certificate to Obinna Ezechukwu, a student from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, after he raised concerns about the utilization of school funds.

In response, the university’s students have expressed their intent to stage a protest and potentially shut down the institution due to the removal of Ezechukwu’s name from the list of graduating students submitted to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the mandatory national youth service.

Ezechukwu expressed disapproval of the recent rise in tuition fees imposed by the university administration for students admitted in the 2022/2023 academic session.

Initially, the university increased the fees to N190,000 for science students and N170,000 for non-science students. However, after discussions between the Students Union Government (SUG) and the university management, the fees were reduced to N105,000 for non-science students and N115,000 for science students.

Despite the adjustment, Ezechukwu questioned the fee increment and raised concerns about how the university utilized the substantial allocation it received from the Federal Government in 2023, which amounted to billions of naira.

He wrote on one of the school’s social media platforms: “UNIBEN got an annual allocation of N19.53b for 2023. “Can the management be bold enough to open up their book and tell the public what these funds were used for so we can take away the doubts that these funds are not enough.

“Transparency helps a lot.” However, following his comment, the university authorities which reportedly viewed it as an incitement, allegedly removed his name from the list of students graduating students in the set of 2021/2022 academic session. It was learnt that his name was omitted or removed by the management of the institution to punish him for his comment and deter others from toeing the same path.

“His (Ezechukwu) name is supposed to be on number 26 in the list but it was removed. What is there is Ezekiel Taiwo Victor,” a source told SaharaReporters on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, efforts made by SaharaReporters to get the reaction of the university to the allegations were unsuccessful.

Source: Saharareporters

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