By Sebastine Chukwuebuka Okafor, Ph.D
According to Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This implies that this sector should be seen as very important, owing to how crucial it is in the development of a country. In Nigeria, we have primary, secondary, and tertiary education, which produce the end products of what we see in our various workplaces and homes. This is aside from the formal and informal education that we know, where people learn from their homes, families, churches, schools, and so on.
Of the three tiers of education, one of the most abused and endangered aspects currently is university education, where all sorts of unthinkable things happen. This is gradually causing more harm than good, which requires urgent action to curb. Of all the problems facing university education in Nigeria, the major one is the admission process, which in most cases negates what excellence means. While Nigeria as a country kills excellence in university education under the guise of “educationally less developed states,” catchment areas, and concessions, the universities themselves use executive lists, VC’s lists, registrar’s lists, staff lists, among others, to cause this travesty. This act has discouraged many brilliant students from achieving what they aspired to.
On a personal note, I was a victim of this shabby admission process in 2012 at one of the schools in Enugu, where I scored 62 in the post-UTME exam with a cutoff mark of 47 but still lost out on admission. The worst was that I later saw people who scored 27 gaining admission while I languished at home. The trauma from that act was so deep that I almost became depressed because I wanted to study. As usual, people tagged it as the will of God.
Some who attended universities and other higher institutions can attest to the fact that while they met the cutoff marks, many of their course mates scored lower grades yet made their way into school, whereas their friends who had better scores either went to polytechnics, were forced to study courses they did not like, or were frustrated out of school. This is an anomaly that has to be addressed by policymakers, university management, and other stakeholders. How someone who scored 220 is studying law or medicine in a university whose cutoff for that same course was 280 should be examined thoroughly.
Moreover, it is quite unfortunate that most universities hardly publish their departmental cutoff marks these days, for reasons not far-fetched from what we have been assuming. This brings about the call for admission transparency. Years back, despite all the merit-killing technicalities used to grant admission in our universities, admission lists were published and students got to know their scores, performances, reasons for admission, and reasons for rejection or transfer to other departments.
This travesty has also affected student intake for residency by Nigerian government-owned hospitals. These days, most hospitals do not publish the results of their screening exams, neither do they publish the admission cutoff marks. When you make inquiries, you will hear incomprehensible stories that make one begin to imagine the type of country we are in and the future we are trying to build. The most affected disciplines in this travesty are the dental and nursing sectors. Ndia atagbuo onwe ha na afufu ime internship. But that will be a story for another day.
It is worthy of note that the 2025/2026 academic year admission process is on, but many vice chancellors and registrars are under pressure to commit admission crimes. This pressure comes from governing councils, state and federal governments, top management staff, host communities, among others. Recently, I visited schools in Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu, and Imo. Believe you me, you will cry. These cabals submit lists with questionable scores and want them to be given medicine, law, pharmacy, nursing, and so on. The worst is that these lists come with signatures and letterheaded papers, and when the requests are not granted, the vice chancellor or registrar is branded a bad person.
This calls for conscience evaluation for those submitting lists. How do you feel seeing a student who scored 290 in JAMB being denied admission to study law or medicine because your subordinate with an empty brain, who scored 180 or 210, wants the same course? It is not just bad but evil before God and man. How do you feel when someone who scored 60 in an internship exam is denied access because of your subordinate who did not even write the exam at all or who scored a lower mark?
The ills of giving admission to the wrong persons are countless. Firstly, it kills the motivation of hardworking students who believe that effort pays. When they see the opposite happening in reality, they lose faith in both the system and themselves. Secondly, it produces a generation of professionals who cannot stand the test of competence. A doctor who got into medical school through influence but cannot pass his exams on merit is a danger to society. A lawyer who smuggled his way into law school but cannot interpret the law is a liability to justice. Thirdly, it perpetuates corruption in every other sector because these wrongly admitted students carry the same mindset into their future offices, where they repeat the cycle of favoritism and nepotism.
In the health sector, it is even more dangerous. Many bright and deserving students are denied residency in medicine, nursing, and dentistry, while others who cannot defend their certificates are smuggled in. Such practices not only ruin careers but also put the lives of patients at risk when incompetent hands are allowed to handle delicate human lives.
As the 2025/2026 academic year admissions begin, university management should be careful about admitting wrongly through lists. They must learn to say no to requests and so-called favors. Anybody whose subordinate did not meet the required score should be redirected to another course or encouraged to go to private universities where they will be accepted wholeheartedly without delays. If this culture of impunity continues unchecked, our institutions will keep producing half-baked graduates who neither have the passion nor the competence for the professions they find themselves in.
This is not just an academic issue but a moral one. When someone who labored hard and scored high is denied admission while another who failed is rewarded, what message are we sending to society? We are telling our young people that connection is more important than hard work and that corruption is stronger than integrity. This is destroying the very foundation of education in Nigeria.
The universities and hospitals must therefore rise above sentimental lists and selfish interests. If someone cannot meet the merit standard, let them wait, prepare harder, or seek other legitimate opportunities. This is the only way to restore confidence, protect excellence, and build an educational system that produces capable leaders, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and administrators for Nigeria’s future.