Jonathan orders expulsion of unqualified UNIAbuja students

Posted by admin Education, Headlines Thursday, May 24th, 2012

May 24, 2012 by Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja

Angered by the lingering crisis in the University of Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, directed the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa’i, to set up a committee saddled with the responsibility of expelling all unqualified students from the school.

He said information at his disposal showed that the unqualified students, imposed on the school authorities by politicians, formed a major part of the institution’s problems.

Jonathan spoke while swearing in a new Minister of Youth Development – Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir from Sokoto State – and members of the newly constituted Federal Civil Service Commission at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa shortly after the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.

The President said he had been informed that there were some students in UNIABUJA who did not possess the basic qualification for admission into higher institutions.

Jonathan said, “Only yesterday (Tuesday), we had a meeting with Minister of Education. We were looking into the situation at the University of Abuja because of their crises. The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission revealed that one thing about the UNIABUJA’s case is that there are students there who do not even have the basic qualifications to be admitted but they are there as undergraduates.

“I said those students must be political students. They must be students that we, politicians, pushed in and I told the minister that they must set up a committee to send the political students back to us.

“We cannot allow the universities to be taken over by political students who are the kind of students that create confusion, create all kinds of cults, and all kinds of practice because definitely they cannot cope with the academic challenges.”wp_posts