The graduating students of Bauchi State University, Gadau have intensified their appeal to the school’s authority, led by Vice-Chancellor Professor Fatima Tahir, to reveal their final academic results.
The Bauchi students claimed that the school withheld their final year results because the administration accused them of causing the recent partial breakdown of law and order on campus.
According to some of the students, the school, by way of punishing them, withheld the final results of graduating students from the institution.
Some of the graduating students in Bauchi revealed that their affected colleagues only realized that their results had been withheld after the University released the second-semester results for the 2022–2023 academic session in the early hours of Friday, January 26, 2024.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of further victimization, the students alleged that the Bauchi State University management may have taken the decision, which is unpleasant, following the allegation against the students of not conducting themselves in an orderly manner while celebrating their graduation, a situation that resulted in a breakdown of law and order on the varsity campus.
One of the affected students said, “We call on the Bauchi State University to release our final results because withholding them is affecting us in other future endeavors.
“Many of us whose results are still being withheld are innocent of the allegation and were not involved in the crisis or protests that led to some problems on campus.
“It is not fair that the innocent ones among us should take the punishment of the unruly ones among us. The management must escalate its investigation network and fish out the real culprits rather than imposing a blanket punishment on all of us.
“Since we realized the development, we have been unsettled,” he stated.
The students further expressed deep concerns that, even though it was not all the graduating students who took part in the protest, the action has now turned out to affect them all.
Concerned about the implications of the likelihood of further sanctions, another student added, “One thing is that the current hardship in the country is affecting everyone; now how can we source money to pay a fee for another session, and we won’t be in classes?”
Speaking to Arewa Punch, they noted that while they agree that their colleagues may have made some mistakes, they pleaded with the vice chancellor, Professor Fatima Tahir, to reverse whatever possible punishments the management further plans to meddle out them.
“I am calling on the Vice-Chancellor to be patient. She should be patient, and please forgive us. We are her children, and as a woman, she knows what every mother will feel in a situation like this when her child is affected,” the students chorused in their plea to the VC and the school authority.
The students who insisted on speaking on behalf of all other students argued that management should rescind the decision so that they could focus on other life difficulties.
They urged Arewa Punch to avail them a space in the Punch Newspapers to remorsefully plead with the Bauchi school authority to release their results, saying the development was traumatizing and agonizing.
The also urged the school administrators to consider and forgive some of those who did not participate in the aforementioned breakdown of the law.
As of the time of writing, attempts to communicate with the Vice Chancellor of Bauchi State University, Professor Fatima Tahir, over the phone had failed because she did not answer her phone or respond to texts sent to her about the issue.
According to Arewa Punch, during a rally staged as part of the 2023 graduation ceremony, final-year students from the Bauchi State University were involved in an accident in Gadau town (the location of the university’s main campus), in which a citizen was gravely hurt. The scenario spread throughout the university, resulting in the crisis.
Following the announcement of the second-semester results on Friday, the school administration refused to divulge the results of graduating students at the main campus where the tragedy occurred, citing the shame caused by the disaster.
The students stated that they just became aware of the problem after discovering that the results were not available on the university portal.
When Arewa Punch contacted the Bauchi State university’s Public Relations Officer, Isah Sulaiman, over the phone, he flatly refused to tell the school’s side of the story.
Instead, Sulaiman was evasive, rude, and uncooperative, declining any requests to clarify the claims.
He stated repeatedly, “This issue happened two weeks ago; why are you just asking me? Go and meet your colleagues to tell you what happened.”
In a related development, Arewa Punch equally reached out to the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of the University, Dr. Yusuf Musa Yahaya, who said he has no information to share on the issue.
In a similar development, reporters contacted Dr. Yusuf Musa Yahaya, head of the university’s Academic Staff Union, who stated that he had no information to provide on the matter.
