By Ikeugonna Eleke
Nnamdi Azikiwe Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, has warned that any student who does not pay us aries their fees at the appropriate time runs the risk of being excluded from examinations.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Charles Okechukwu Esimone, stated this, March 1, at the 2023/2024 matriculation ceremonies for fresh undergraduate students of the university.
Stating the obligations of the students, the VC said, ‘It needs no gainsaying that you must pay your school fees as and when due to enable the University to maintain existing facilities and provide new ones.
‘Any student who does not pay his/her fees by the appropriate time runs the risk of being excluded from examinations,’ Esimone said.
Continuing, the VC said, ‘For your stay in this university to successfully end with the acquisition of a university degree, you owe certain obligations to the university, your parents and yourselves.
‘These obligations are summarized below: Payment of fees. You must attend at least 75% attendance of all lectures and practicals for you to be allowed to write examinations.’
The VC warned that examination misconduct could fetch a student suspension for up to three years and even expulsion, while students found to have registered with fake certificates would be expelled from the university.
Describing cultism as an anathema in the university, the VC said all proven cultists had been expelled.
He added, ‘Other deviant behaviors such as robbery, rape, etc., are not tolerated, for these are both misconduct and crime punishable by expulsion from the university and terms of imprisonment by the state.
While congratulating the new students on their admission, the VC enjoined them to at all times during their stay in the university to remember why they were there, while praying that their stay in the university would end with a degree of the university.
He added, ‘We have linkages with many world-renowned universities spread across the United State of America, China, Europe and Africa. This is in addition to linkages with local institutions. The essence of these linkages is to facilitate academic programmes development, teaching/research, public service and staff/student exchange.’
Youth Group Berates HealthMinister over Appointments in Ministry, Asks Tinubu to Wade In
The recent appointment of directors in agencies and parastatals under the Ministry of Health, by the Minister, Alhaji Idris Pate, has drawn the anger of a South East based youth group, South East Dynamic Youths.
The group, in a press release by its coordinator, Tony Obiogbolu, gave the minister an ultimatum to rescind the appointments for not including any South Easterner, and also called on President Bola Tinubu to wade in.
The group said the recent appointments by Pate deliberately excluded people from the South East, despite having capable hands in all the areas appointments were made.
Obiogbolu in the press release said: ‘While we as youths keep finding reason to believe in Nigeria, in the hope that one day it would treat us fairly and give to us a sense of belonging, some Nigerians have continued to diminish such a hope.
‘Pate, in a manner that defied all logic, and even sense of fairness, decided to appoint directors to a number of agencies under his watch and deliberately excluded worthy Igbo sons and daughters who had demonstrated brilliant scholarship and professionalism in their various fields of endeavour.
‘It did not matter to him that these persons possessed the much needed experience or not. For Pate, because they were Igbo, they were qualified for exclusion.
‘We in the South East Dynamic Youths Movement will not accept such and we are giving Pate two weeks to rescind such an exclusive policy or face the wrath of our youths in calculated measures.’
The group called on President Tinubu to intervene. It also drew the attention of South East governors from the All Progressives Congress (APC), and leaders of the party in the zone, to wade in.
The group said it had submitted petitions to those it urged to intervene, including Governors Hope Uzodinma and Francis Nwifuru of Imo and Ebonyi States respectively the Deputy National Chairman, Emma Eneukwu and the National Vice Chairman South East, Dr Ijeomah Arodiogbu.
