By TheLumineNews Admin
Controversies continued to trail the press release issued on Saturday November 11th 2023, by the University Director of General Studies (GSS), Prof Takim Ojua, after the stampede that occurred during Saturday November 11th GSS examination.
Some of the students that claimed anonymity argued that both the planning and administration was riddled with levity by the handlers of the examination, which was mischievous, mundane, anachronistic, unjust and discriminatory with the purpose of making students failed so that they can extort money from them.
Students wondered why a very sensitive issue of such magnitude could be trivialized as seen in the press release by Director of GSS, Prof Takim Ojua, instead of apologizing to the oppressed students.
Recall that on Friday 10th November, 2023, when a similar examination was supposed to be conducted at ICT center, reports had it that the SERVICOM Director of the institution, Prof Patrick Egaga, in company of the Chief Security Officer, Capt Abang (RTD), defied the heavy flood around the vicinity of the examination, and armed with directives of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Florence Obi, had advised that the said exams conducted under a porous, flooded and unsafe atmosphere should be cancelled, for a later day to be fixed for the safety of the students and integrity of the University. Curiously, our reporter discovered that the examination was stopped temporarily, obstensibly, because of their presence, but as soon as the duo left the venue of the questionable examination, which they described as “unsafe, poorly managed and improperly organized and administered”,
the “organizers” rebuffed and flouted the VC’s directives, properly conveyed and went ahead with the examination, to achieve a sinister purpose maybe.
Prof Ojua’s release reads in parts, “On Saturday, the 11th of November, 2023, University of Calabar students who were scheduled to write Computer Based Test (CBT) GSS Examination, set out to write their exams without any premonition that the exercise will be marred by an unfortunate incident of Stampede casualties, leading to the indefinite suspension of the examination as a result of some medical emergency.
“Unfortunately, some people saw the incident as an avenue for making headlines and attracting traffic to their platforms and blogs. While some built on hurried publications and posts to re-create stories, others merely found new opportunities to further their negative publicity on the University of Calabar in such a critical time of the life of the University. In all of these, facts were misrepresented, skewed and disseminated, with brazen misinformation about what exactly happened. Based on the high level of misconception and misconstruction of the facts, the Directorate of the Center for General Studies (CGS) deemed it necessary to set the following records straight”.
Reacting to the release, an anonymous student maintained that the Director has acquissed that the Examination was marred by an “Unfortunate Incident” the honorable thing he will have done was to accept his incompetence and inadequacy and appeal to Administration to cancel the questionable Examination in entirety.
Another student, Paul Ebube (not real name), said that the GSS Director was in a haste to defend his shortcomings.
The student noted that, going by the release, the Director is yet to mention some of the media houses or blogs that reported death of students during the stampede, instead of crating a non-existing situation to gain public sympathy. Moreover, he questioned, “is he the spokesperson of the University?”
The student insisted that poor management and greed is the major cause of the stampede as the school security that assisted in the management of GSS examination is alleged not to have been paid their remuneration for the previous examinations and as a result, the directorate of GSS resorted to using extraneous Man’O’War to assist in coordinating the examination.
Prof Ojua’s release further reads, “That the Exams of Friday, the 10th of November 2023 started successfully by 8am, until the heavy rain and storms began at about 10am, causing the stoppage of the examination until the rain and flood subsided at about 3pm, when some students returned to write the exams till about 5pm. And while it was raining, and flooding heavily, a group of students rather than move out of the rain to take refuge on nearby buildings, preferred to stand in the rain despite pleas and announcements from the staff of the Center, man O’War and security men”.
“So why did the corrupt Director not mention anything about the GST exam of Friday Nov 10 conducted under threat of students and staff safety and inside a raging flood that ravaged the University Neigbourhood?”, a female student queried.
Another student who also claimed anonymity, berates the GSS Director for failing to provide the leadership he was appointed to give to the directorate and wondered what preventive measures were put in place (rescheduling examination for those that missed due to heavy rainfall), when the rain had disrupted the examination between 10:00am and 3:00pm scheduled for Friday 10th November, 2023 as he rightly reported.
The student insisted that what is of utmost importance in the circumstance is the alternative plans for those students who had missed the examination at the period of the stoppage due to the heavy rain, and how the students failed to comply with such directives.
The students also wondered why Prof Ojua, insisted on continuing with the examination even against the directives of the Vice Chancellor.
This student averred that “examination is time bound. The Director may have collected monies from some students and he was doing everything humanly possible to administer the examination to enable him protect the interest of those he may have collected monies from.
The director’s release further reads, “That the examination of Saturday, the 11th of November 2023, started smoothly, with the 3rd set, almost concluding, before students who either missed exams, were not scheduled to write in the morning or were not even part of the examination, became unruly, uncontrollable, impatient, defiant, by wanting to break into the exam venue forcefully”.
Another anonymous student held that, “What happened at the gate is that we were scheduled to write examination at a particular time, but the directorate don’t keep to the time. Anytime you come, once you can pay #200.00 to some Man O’War, they will allow you to enter, so entering into the examination center with up to four or five faculties scheduled for a day, becomes survival of the fittest. Those that missed examination on Friday and those who were scheduled for Friday all came out and were struggling to access the examination centre.
Reacting to the issue of those who missed the examination on Friday, the student noted that, “when students missed examination the previous day on account of the rain, which wasn’t their fault with no information regarding rescheduling of the examination, what do you expect? Some of us felt that since we missed the examination on Friday, we were now supposed to have taken the examination on Saturday. This led to overcrowding of the gate and couple with the partiality shown by allowing some students into the examination centre while others are kept waiting”.
In another development, Prof Ojua stated thus, “That the Examination was scheduled in batches, with specific faculties scheduled to write on stipulated time and dates. Unfortunately, some students refused to abide by the Time Table Schedule and rather decided to gate- crash by forcing the gate to open, resulting in the avoidable, unfortunate and regrettable incident”.
Another student argued that if the Director was serious as he claimed, he should make public the planned time table for the examination showing clearly, the various faculties, considering the number of departments and students who register for the GSS examination.
He regretted the vulnerability of students who are always at the receiving end of poor planning on issues that concerns students and situations like this unforseen circumstance, instead of Prof Ojua to come clean and take responsibility for his inadequacies, he rather wants to use the students as scapegoats.
Ojua in his release also stated, “That the essence of the introduction of the GSS CBT exams by the school management was to ensure fast service delivery, easy access to examination and results and to reduce the stress on students during examination periods”.
Another student wondered why the CBT that was created to reduce the stress on students during examination periods, has turned to triple the stress of students under his watch.
This student opined that the appointment of Prof Takim Ojua is a misnomal with the introduction of CTB. He alleged that Prof Ojua is not even ICT compliant, and called on the university management to restore the integrity of the university.
The release further reads, “Students are therefore advised to travel as the exams has been suspended till further notice”.
A four hundred level student of the faculty of law wondered if the university is still guided by administrative laws. He expressed surprise why the GSS Director, Prof Takim Ojua still talk about suspension of the examination instead of outright cancellation in line with the VC’S directives.
Some other students have alleged that they are made to pay between 10 to 15k as sorting fee before they can pass the GSS examination and likened the shattered preparation and administration of the examination to aid the sorting process. ” No need reading for GST or attending classes. Pay direct to the Director and your grade is guaranteed ” said Emem Ekanem (not real name).
An anonymous female student alleged that the Director is “presently using part of his official office as a branch of his Church”. “He collects sorting as tithes and promises those who attend protection and good grades”. “He is even bold to tell you he makes returns to administration, he is in charge of uploading of GST results and nothing can change it as he and the VC hail from the same LGA”.
So far, nothing has been heard from the University Management in connection with this embarrassing sham as the students wait for “Godot”.
See some reactions and comments of some the students on the press release by the Director of GSS as was shared by Nsikak Ibatt on his verified Facebook page.
See link https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02fvqu1PPoG1bd2u8CTN3ZinnBU86wVarDmeDLLfSLvXfSvZVKhcN19irag1JV8i7dl&id=100004199258282&mibextid=Nif5oz
Kandy Umoh said: This man just said nonsense
Cletus Asuquo said: E go explain tire
Joe Cassy said: Blames always on d students…
De Cen Cy said: Let him go and sit down. Such a glorified writer.
This and many more are some of the consequences of being greedy. Just feeling for the victimized individuals.
For crying out loud, everyone knows that for the past three years, the school has become overly populated yet, the management keeps admitting millions of applicants to the detriment of students even when its obvious that the school doesn’t have enough resources to carter for the well-being of these ones.
Unical is among the first five most populated university in Nigeria with the poorest management yet they are less concerned about covering up her lapses.
Mc Nawe ll: Thunder go f.ire am
Richard said: Anything that happens in a any higher institutions is always the fault the of the students
Meanwhile the the management are always right , even tho 95% of those plans have lapses
Isortry
🚶🚶🚶🚶
Louiz Dominic said: Nah students 💯
In another development, the Chairman, Forum of Faculties Presidents University of Calabar and President, Faculty of Clinical Science, Comrade Emmanuel Oshie, has called on the University management to investigate EDC and GSS on report from students that they are mandated to buy an imposed textbook from lecturers for assessment.
