*As ESUT Medlab Department fails to induct graduates after  nine years on a five-year programme

Dozens of University of Jos dental students have taken to the streets to protest the non-accreditation of their courses, which has resulted in them spending over ten years in school without graduating.

This is as the graduates of Medical Laboratory Sciences of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) have been frustrated on one spot for nearly four years.

The UNIJos students, on Wednesday, blocked the university gate at its Permanent site, singing solidarity songs and carrying placards with different inscriptions which read, “Save us from unending depression,” “Our future is on hold,” “Accredit us now,” and “We are tired of UNIJOS,” among others.

The President of the Jos University Dental Students Association, Mr. Johnson Titus, who spoke on behalf of the students, demanded that the management address their plight and provide a solution to their predicament.

“What you see behind me is the frustration of dental students who have been in the university for the past ten years without graduating. We have been stagnating because of the non-accreditation of our programme.

“The students are calling on the university management and relevant authorities to come forth and address their issues, which include getting a date for accreditation and resolving the curriculum problems,” Titus said

The student leader who blamed the university for their plight added, “Nobody should blame us because if the university is going to do screening and admission, they don’t usually inform students that there is no accreditation for the affected programme.

UNIJOS students protesting

At ESUT, the Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Faculty of Basic and Allied Medical Sciences, could not offer any explanation as to why they have not been able to conduct any further Induction of their Medical Laboratory Sciences graduates since 2022. 

This is irrespective of the Council of Medical and Laboratory Sciences having given approval for 250 graduates for the institution.

Several of ESUT Medlab students who had since completed all they were required to have done prior to induction, passing all the internal and professional examinations as prescribed and after having paid the necessary fees required for their induction, are facing despondency, frustration and getting dejected as to why they chose that University.

Of the backlog graduates of the department, still awaiting induction, those who took exams and passed in 2022 up to the batch that qualified in June, this year, are all holes up from progressing with their career path, simply because the university has refused to perfect the necessary arrangements with the Laboratory Sciences Council, the professional/accrediting body to fix a date for their induction.

The Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty are aware that the students are still required to embark on another process of their training, known as Internship and thereafter proceed for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. 

However, with this needless and wicked delay, most of their students would have clicked 30 years and so, would automatically be exempt from NYSC and become ineligible for apply for employment, especially in organisations or agencies where entry age limit is required.

Unlike the UNIJos students whose President elected to speak, the Student Union President of ESUT Medical Laboratory Sciences Students, refused to speak for fear of intimidation. 

 The Head of Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Dr. Miriam Aniagolu, when contacted said the university is doing its best to see that the induction is carried out before the end of the year, a statement she has repeated severally since her appointment over a year ago. 

“We are doing our best. The Senate has approved their results, it is remaining for us to get a date from the Council for their induction,” she stated.

However, when asked why they should subject their students to such debilitating situation, she has nothing more to say.

When she was also reminded that same set of students had three years ago demonstrated over the protracted delays in the academic programme, she cut off the telephone interview. 

Neither the Vice-Chancellor of ESUT,  Prof. Aloysius-Michaels Okolie, nor Chairman of the Governing Council, Sir. Chinyeaka Ohaa, were willing to make any comment on the matter, when they were contacted.