THE FATE OF NIGERIAN STUDENTS IN THE SOUTH EAST UNIVERSITIES

Going through an old Daily sun newspaper of
thursday,30th of April 2015,i came across a
headline on page 12 which captioned,'UNILAG
GRADUATES 125 IST CLASS STUDENTS ,i was marvelled for it was a rare case to find
such number of ist class graduates in our south
eastern universities.The question going through
my mind as i glance through the report was
whether there are no such brilliant gem within
this geopolitical zone.The answer to my question
was simply yes for everybody regardless of your
tribe or colour was born with a functional
brain.So i continue to ask why we are not
graduating this massive ist class students.Our
counterparts,the southwest universities seems to
be ahead of us academically and otherwise.Do
our students in the south east universities no
longer study hard to make good grades?.the
answer still remains NO.they do study hard but
why is the results still the same over the
decade.Being called upon to profer answers and
solution to this menace,i will vividly point out
corruption to be the major cause.A system
where you study to know a course but must sort
to pass that same course you were a master
in.The mentality now invoked among some of
the students in these universities may be that of
negotiating to have average grade awarded to
them at least for them to leave school at their
appropriate time to go and continue with their
various businesses.These group of students who
may be well over 60% find it difficult to attend
classes and do assignments since the only thing
required of them to pass is money.Even non
academic staff members wants to have their
own pieces of the action by putting unseen
hardships for the students who must pay for
every service rendered.The lecturers do not help
matters as they allegedly see every handout or
pamphlet produced for the students to be a
veritable means of making extra financial
gains.some lecturers have been found to swear
to ensure that no ist class graduates emerges
from among the students since they themselves
were not as they demand ratifications for
marking or awarding grades to students.The ugly
effect of this situation in the south east
universities is that the worlds ist class graduate
materials are frustrated to make due with 2nd
class upper grades.The vice chancellors of these
universities in the south east appear to be
indifferent to the trend and do not bother to
question why their universities hardly award ist
class degrees like their counterpart in the south
west.Considering that for over 12 years now,the
south west universities have flooded the labour
market with hundreds of ist class graduates and
considering that corporate bodies demand
graduates with high grades to apply for jobs in
their organisations.One would wonder why a
graduate from the south east universities with
2nd class lower or 3rd class degrees can
courageously apply for the same job.Consequentl
y,a high percentage of graduates from south
east universities are not employable and cannot
be awarded federal higher scholarships
abroad.Vice chancellors and lecturers in the
south east universities should come to a round
table or go back to the drawing board to find out
what really went wrong in the system.Is the
teaching methodology or academic curicullum of
the universities in the south west universities
different or better than those in the south east
univesities or are the students and lecturers in
the south east universities not intellectually
sound enough to produce massive ist class
graduates?.More worrisome is the fact that the
national scholarship placements in the best 25
universities in the world based in the
USA,UK,Japan and Europe are selected from
among ist class graduates in Nigerian
universities but it have been observed that 85%
of the scholarship beneficiaries are graduates
from south west universitiies that appreciate the
intellectual,political and social needs of awarding
ist class degrees to their students.Then try to
rank the best 10 universities in Nigeria and it will
be suprising to see only one or two south east
universities in the list with south west
universities dominating and at the same time
taking the lead.The latest news in the academic
standard of this nation is that the score for
grade 'A' has risen from 70 to 75.one would now
wonder how the fate of the bright students in
the southeast universities who toil day and night
to land at least at 70 would look like.Would this
same lecturers who find it very difficult to award
70's make out time to offer 75 on a free will?This
answer to this question is left to imagination.Sou
th east professors should wake up and quell this
state of shame and disgrace raising for us a
generation of high flyers again,those who depict
the fact that excellence is a function of the
intellect and not otherwise.THE TIME TO DO
THAT IS NOW