By Moses Oludele Idowu
I have been keenly following with obvious amusement and interest the exchanges between an aggrieved parent and the Authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University over an admission issue. I am touched by the genuine grievance of a father of a brilliant pupil who has voiced out his concerns because his son has been refused an admission by a federal university of his choice and the official response from the university based on standard narrative and convention saying the usual things but leaving the main issues, the fundamental argument of the father. I sympathize with OAU and the Public Relations Officer who did a good job defending archaic admission criteria that he has no hand in creating but he fails to address the real issue in Mr. Akin Okunowo’s argument.
Why this issue is still not obvious to our scholars is a mystery to me.
No one is arguing against merit and no one will complain about it if all admissions are made purely on merit. In that case a parent knows that his candidate was denied purely on merit. And no one is blaming the Government for creating the policy of inclusiveness, federal character, geographical spread or quota or whatever name it is called.
These criteria have their place in solidifying unity, ensuring inclusiveness, togetherness, equity, and fairness. We all know that both the North and South are not equally endowed educationally and as such certain policies have to be put in place to help the less endowed.
We all know for instance the educational backwardness of the Northern states through no fault of theirs but based on colonial manipulations and religious interference of the past. We all know these things and Government is not wrong putting these structures in place to remedy a bad situation. And all universities that I know adhere by them within certain constraints except UNILAG to ensure geographical spread, inclusivity and equitable distribution. After all, the taxes used in running the universities are contributed by all Nigerians from every state and the resources that fund these institutions are owned by all Nigerians.
No one is questioning these and OAU and UI must be commended for still adhering and upholding these tenets of national regulatory policies and framework towards inclusiveness.
But it is more than these. And this is why Mr. Akin Okunowo’s argument matters and why not only OAU but all federal universities and regulatory authorities must now revisit this issue again.
Why should three students sitting for the same exam in the same school and both living in Lagos be treated differently because of where the parent comes from? Why should an Ogun State indigene who possibly has never set foot in the state of his father and have known no other state than Lagos or Oyo where his parents are resident sitting for the same examination be denied even after scoring higher than another student in the same school and at the same examination centre and both living in the same Lagos be admitted because his parents hail from another state. Then that is discriminatory against the student concerned. There is no other word for it.
Akin Okunowo’s son sat for the examination in Lagos not Ogun State. He probably lives in Lagos as well as many other students. If he is denied admission for the same course for which others were admitted with lower score from the same school and center then it is discriminatory.
Perhaps it is time for the regulatory authorities to redesign the template of admissions requirements and to request students to stipulate “State of Origin” and ‘State of Residence” and the score should apply only to the latter and not the former. Otherwise many students will face discrimination through no fault of theirs and through no fault of the universities too.
I sympathize with Mr. Akin Okunowo. I feel his pain and grievance because my own son is a victim too but I decided to keep quiet and not say anything not to add to the problems of our universities faced as they are with multi- dimensional crises. Until I saw his agitation and the OAU’s official narrative response intended to drown his voice.
My own son applied to Unilag and scored 72.7% for Systems Engineering. His state of origin is Kwara State in the Northern part of Nigeria. Yet Unilag has denied him admission to study the course even with this score. Because UNILAG has discretionary criteria for Catchment areas like Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Ondo and even Ekiti but Kwara which is also largely Yoruba is excluded and nothing(?) for Educationally- disadvantaged states or Northern states in contravention of Federal Government’s federal character policies. So a student from any of the Northern states who does not come on merit list has no way of entering Unilag. The cut- off mark for this year is particularly baffling if not confounding. For Systems Engineering UNILAG has the following for different states:
Ondo: 58.35
Ekiti : 65.475
Osun: 70.76
Oyo: 73.95
Lagos: 73.45
How about that? How is Ekiti within the “catchment area” of Lagos and on what conditions? Lagos shares no physical boundaries with Ekiti to the best of my knowledge. And if Ekiti falls on catchment list of UNILAG because it is Yoruba why should Kwara and Kogi be excluded that are also populated by largely Yoruba – speaking people?
When you look at the cut-off marks for different states you need to laugh and you see the obvious contradictions and injustice inherent in them.
My son with 72.7 from Kwara is refused admission but another candidate with 58% from Ondo State and another student from Ekiti with 65% are both admitted even though they both sat for the same exam in the same centre.
Where is the justice in that policy? Is UNILAG telling us and the whole world that Kwara is more educationally advanced or developed than Ekiti or Ondo States? Ekiti prides itself as ‘the “fountain of knowledge”” by the way. Why is this contradiction not obvious to the admission officers of Unilag? Is the university saying that the North is more educationally- developed or advantaged than the South? By what logic and consideration?.
And what happened to the policy of ELDS – Educationally Less Developed States, of which Kwara is listed officially?
My son has been denied admission on the ground that he doesn’t belong to the Catchment of Lagos. It is certain if he had come from Ekiti or Ondo or Osun he would have been admitted based on the cut- off published by UNILAG itself. Yet my son has never been to Kwara State all his life, he has been in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo where his parents live and work.
In point of fact if i send him to Kwara today he would miss his way because he has only met Kwara on the map not in reality. Now if a student sitting for a national examination in Lagos is denied admission because his state does not fall on the catchment list – a state he has never been to and which he does not know – then it is discrimination. And if that state known as educationally- disadvantaged is still not considered as a favour for him in spite of his score and in contravention of extant Federal Government’s policies on federal character by an institution that is supposed to be a federal university then it becomes a double discrimination.
If ABU denies my son admission I can understand that. If Dan Fodio university based in Sokoto denies my son from Kwara I can also understand within certain historical dynamics; but when Unilag too does the same then I can’t understand. There is a problem some of us have faced especially from Kwara and Kogi states for years. We are discriminated against in the North because we are Yoruba and also in the South because we are Northerners. So you see whichever way we lose. The war never ends for the vanquished. Now to think that our own children will also face the same tragedy due to accidents of birth makes you wonder whether Nigeria is really a blessing or a curse.
I have heard many Southerners make empty barrel noise about discrimination against them and their children in Unity schools and even recruitment to favour Northerners with lesser qualifications. The trouble is in Nigeria discrimination runs through all spaces depending on where you have influence. Southerners themselves are not free of imposing discrimination on others where they have influence. Southerners too discriminate in the areas of their own power and in their zones of influence.
That is how Nigeria runs. I am a witness.
I sympathize once again with Mr. Akin Okunowo. I suggest that you try a private university if you can afford it. It is a sad commentary but it is true that the best advertisement and publicity today for the private university are the federal institutions themselves and the slipshod way many of them are governed or misgoverned. The sad reality today is that many academics now have their own children in private universities, at least I know several. That is a sign and a portent. When a ship is about to sink the sailors are usually the last to leave; but now the sailors of our universities are already living with their children. That is a sign and a portent.
ASUU has a lot of battles on her hands to fight but not just with Government alone but even with her own members who run these universities. Even with increased funding through tuition and other charges and fees have you seen any improvements in our federal universities?
Corruption, graft, mismanagement, sheer incompetence and maladministration are still rife in most of our universities. A top person in the last administration confided in us that if the President had had time to look at the Visitation Reports on Federal universities on his table many Vice Chancellors would be in jail. How about that?
On another consideration I regard the refusal of my son’s admission as a blessing and I take it in good faith. As Awo once philosophized reflecting on his life and struggles and betrayals in one of his last interviews before his death- “Whatever happens to a man happens to him for his own good.”
As Tai Solarin would say, ” I wish you what you wish yourself.” I say the same to UNILAG:” I wish you what you wish yourself.”
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© Moses Oludele Idowu
November 2, 2026
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