OAU under fire over alleged ethnic agenda in cut-off marks

The management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has come under scrutiny following allegations by a stakeholder that the institution’s cut-off mark is driven by an ethnic agenda, raising concerns over fairness and transparency in its admission process.

A stakeholder, whose child was a victim, in an open letter dated October 23 to the chairman of the university’s governing council, via the office of the vice-chancellor and registrar, called on the management to abolish the discriminatory cut-off system and admit students on merit, or face the consequences.

“Abolish the discriminatory cut-off system now and give the students who merit admission the admission they deserve!

“Otherwise, we shall resort to a serious public campaign, legal action and international advocacy against this poor and evil standard the current administration of the university has inculcated into the system,” the parent said.

In a letter titled, ‘Your cut-off mark system is killing merit, killing OAU and Nigeria and its future- abolish it now!’, the parent said that parents did not send their children to school for 12 years for the university to reject them with 75 percent and admit another child with 53 percent for the same course.

OAU governing council. Your system is fraud.

Akin Okunowo, the national leader of Anti-Cult Activities in Nigeria, alleged that the university’s management has turned the cradle of excellence into the headquarters of educational injustice and ethnic mediocrity.

In the Faculty of LAW, he said the university the cut-off mark is 76.875 for students from Osun State, where the university is located, 76.53 for Oyo, 75.78 for Ogun, 76.83 for Kwara, 76.1 for Kogi, 75.05 for Ondo, 69.68 for Lagos, 68.40 for Bayelsa, 63.13 for Gombe, 57.05 for Kaduna, 58.15 for Niger, and 53.43 for Kebbi State.

While in the Department of Accounting, Osun: 64.00, Oyo: 63.20, Ogun: 63.20, Kogi: 61.05, Kwara: 60.60, Ekiti: 59.63, Ondo: 58.45, Lagos: 55.70, Cross River: 54.68, Ebonyi: 53.98, Benue: 52.23.

“My son, who was born in Lagos State, raised and educated in Lagos, scored 63 percent for accounting, but you put his cut-off at 63.20 because his great-grandparents were from Ogun State.

“Meanwhile, you offered admission to a student in the same Lagos State who scored 55.0 because his great-grandparents are from Lagos State. You call this federal character? We call it a secret ethnic agenda,” he queried.

Besides, he expressed concerns that the university did not publish the list on its website before JAMB. “Why do parents only see it after you have destroyed their children’s future? What are you hiding?” he asked.

Moreover, he wondered how OAU, which is situated in Ile-Ife, could demand 75.78 percent from an Ogun child to study Law, 76.53 percent from an Oyo child, 76.875 percent from an Osun child, but demand 57.05 percent from a Kaduna child and 53.43 percent from a Kebbi child for the same law, same class, and same certificate.

“The most punished people in your education system today are the Yorubas. Yorubas are deliberately and secretly marginalised and punished across the country by depriving our children of their right to education, just like every other tribe in Nigeria.

“In fact, we are deprived of this right on our own ancestral soil. You have made Ile-Ife a place where an Ogun indigene is a foreigner in his own land. Go to all federal higher institutions across Yoruba land; the same unconstitutional pattern is in play,” the parent noted, even as he said that the university has declared war on Yoruba children on Yoruba soil.

He decried that fact that this practice amounts to turning brilliance into a crime. “A child who scores 75 percent and is denied Law while 53 percent is admitted will never believe in Nigeria again. You have created a generation that hates merit and believes in quota, connection, and corruption,” he emphasised.

He called on the NUC, the Federal Ministry of Education, and the OAU governing council to abolish what he described as a retrogressive policy.

He highlighted some of the inimical tendencies of the policy, such as that it breeds laziness. destroys quality and violates Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution, among others.

“If I know I need only 53 percent to read Law in OAU, why should I read for 80 percent? You are deliberately ensuring that the so-called Educationally Less Developed States (ELDS) remain permanently less developed. You lower the bar instead of raising the child.

“You cannot build a first-class university with third-class cut-offs. You are producing lawyers who could not pass Law on merit, doctors who could not pass Medicine on merit. Your administration has destroyed the standard built over many years to make the university great.

It violates Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution, which says no Nigerian shall be discriminated against based on place of origin. Cut-off by state of origin is unconstitutional. And we will challenge you in court,” he said. (BusinessDay)