Beyond issue of PC tablet, University of Ilorin
Beyond issue of PC tablet, University of Ilorin
Beyond issue of PC tablet, University of Ilorin is unsung performer of many firsts...
It started two years ago when some media people were discussing among
themselves how the tablet that was the
ICT initiative in the University of
Ilorin e-teaching/e-learning
programme came about. Later
towards the end of 2015, one said
introduction of the tablets to the
students of the university to be paid
for as much as N36,000 was the
personal business of the then Minister
of Finance under the PDP
administration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Worse heard of was that the tablet
payment was woven into the e-
payment of the school fees system such
that to be able to pay for tuition fee to
be able to do course registration at all,
fresh student must first of all have
paid for the N36,000 the tablet fee.
It then became an issue agitating the
mind of this reporter as to why should
personal business of a public officer,
which the minister was, be forced on
students who were only going to learn
to be proper human beings in life?
The agitation became rife as questions
began to rise as per why is it only
University of Ilorin the then Minister
of Finance of the Federal Republic was
able to do her business of tablets?
There are other universities owned by
the Federal Government of Nigeria
where the issue of tablets was not as
agitating as of UNILORIN.
This was why six months ago that The
DEFENDER launched into the
mainstream of Nigerian media
practice the matter was picked up as a
major editorial assignment to be
investigated with a view to unveiling
the truth and reporting the result of
the investigations to the public, in a
society where falsehood told
repeatedly without response makes a
liar truthful, and it was decided that
the result of the investigations would
be made available to the public
without the mindset to witch-hunt
anybody neither to sabotage the
government or any of its institutions.
One thing that this media organisation
insisted on was to wait until after it
had concluded its investigations
before anything was made public
about the matter since the media
outfit was established to be a
difference in Nigerian journalism by
not sensationalising unnecessarily.
In the course of its investigations, all
stakeholders were contacted from the
students, academic and non-academic
staff of the University of Ilorin and
the institution’s administration to the
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu
Adamu and even the Presidency.
Some of the students contacted were
drawn from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun
and Kwara, their views sampled.
Some of them who are now in 300
Level said they never had any issue of
tablets not being given to them. Those
who said they came in 2015 and are
now in 200 Level however confirmed
that truly since they were admitted,
they had not been given tablets they
paid N36,000 for, cost including other
fees as the real cost of tablet was
learned to be N25,000. They however
informed The DEFENDER that the
university authorities briefed them
from time to time why the tablets were
not ready since end of 2015 that they
entered the school. How it became
issue of complaint in the outside world
remained a matter left to people who
were described by some friends of the
university as envying the progresses
being made by the university.
The only alarming area of the tablets
issue however came as some students
claimed that PC tablet this year for
fresh students had been increased
from N36,000 other fees inclusive paid
year to N50,000 this year. One of
them who became apprehensive told
The DEFENDER that, “If the students
before us have not been given tablets,
what is the assurance that we will ever
get ours? Although we have
information that it had never
happened like this before last year.”
This reporter however found out that
on campus in Ilorin, there was no
visible tension neither was there any
apparent apprehension existent to
suggest that there was truly an issue
concerning the tablets.
The DEFENDER was however
applauded by some members of the
university community interacted with
who said, “We want to express our
appreciation that you came all the way
from the comfort of your office in
Lagos to come and see things for
yourself. You have indeed reinforced
our confidence in the ability of the
media to right the many wrongs that
have afflicted our progress in Nigeria
by carriers of false news,” a university
lecturer who pleaded anonymity
particularly said.
This media went to Ilorin for one
clarification but returned to Lagos
overwhelmed by discovery of many
undeniable achievements that no
media organization has ever
mentioned about the Nigeria’s most
subscribed university. The DEFENDER,
though not praise singer of anybody,
has taken it upon itself to serialise the
sweet things that it brought from its
two-day verification visit to the
University of Ilorin community with a
particular media engagement with the
Vice Chancellor, Professor
Abdulganiyu Ambali, who is found to
be another brilliant Nigerian. It
should be noted that Professor
Ambali’s immediate predecessor as
Vice Chancellor is Professor Is-haq
Oloyede, who is currently the
Registrar and Chief Executive of Joint
Admissions and Matriculations Board
(JAMB).
The university, The DEFENDER found
out, apart from being the Nigeria’s
most subscribed higher institution of
learning, also has a feat of having
succeeded in actually being the
Nigeria’s university of many firsts. In
University of Ilorin, power supply is
constant, staple and contributory to
progress and development, all of
which are obvious to even any
unsuspecting visitor.
The visit of this media organisation to
the institution near Tanke in Ilorin
has proved many things: One that the
information about how a former
minister of finance imposed her
personal business in form of tablets
sales to fresh students was merely a
rumour that no sane Nigerian must
join in spreading. Two, that the PC
tablets project is truly existent in
UNILORIN but not in the mode that
was being spread about. It was
discovered that the tablet thing was
just and is still one of the many
projects that the university
administration had put in place to
make University of Ilorin stand out as
best university in Nigeria and
beyond. The visit of this reporter
cleared a mix-up that Professor
Okonjo, a well learned and well
travelled Nigerian leader, Chairman of
the University of Ilorin Governing
Council had the idea of equipping the
students with skill in the ICT which
was also found out to be in line with
existing programme whereby the
university system had already been
operating a paperless and cashless
policy. “There is therefore no reason
to link Professor Okonjo, Chairman of
Council, with Okonjo-Iweala, the
minister of finance. The two are not
the same except that somebody wanted
University of Ilorin to be afraid of
taking steps to move forward and
develop simply because some people
would pose a challenge,” a source in
the university, who said only the Vice
Chancellor could speak clearly on the
matter, told The DEFENDER.
It was the second major national
assignment by The DEFENDER the first
being the interview it conducted in
the Presidency with Special Adviser to
President Muhammadu Buhari on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi
Adesina, on November 27 bothering
on the state of the nation. The visit to
Ilorin therefore by this reporter was
like a heart desire granted by
Almighty Allah whereas, one had
always looked forward to one day he
would be able to make a difference in
Nigerian journalism, trying to get to
roots of matters without just jumping
at conclusion on sensitive national
issues. Hence, the stress of travelling
by road via the very highly trailer-
populated Oyo-Ogbomoso route, which
elongated the three hours journey to
eight hours between 7.30am and
3.30pm, was no issue since achieving
the result for which the travelling was
necessitated mattered most.
Arriving at his Quarters at about 4pm,
having earlier informed him of the
reporter’s visit, the media meeting
with the Vice Chancellor, University of
Ilorin, Professor Abdulganiyu Ambali,
started in earnest.
It started two years ago when some media people were discussing among
themselves how the tablet that was the
ICT initiative in the University of
Ilorin e-teaching/e-learning
programme came about. Later
towards the end of 2015, one said
introduction of the tablets to the
students of the university to be paid
for as much as N36,000 was the
personal business of the then Minister
of Finance under the PDP
administration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Worse heard of was that the tablet
payment was woven into the e-
payment of the school fees system such
that to be able to pay for tuition fee to
be able to do course registration at all,
fresh student must first of all have
paid for the N36,000 the tablet fee.
It then became an issue agitating the
mind of this reporter as to why should
personal business of a public officer,
which the minister was, be forced on
students who were only going to learn
to be proper human beings in life?
The agitation became rife as questions
began to rise as per why is it only
University of Ilorin the then Minister
of Finance of the Federal Republic was
able to do her business of tablets?
There are other universities owned by
the Federal Government of Nigeria
where the issue of tablets was not as
agitating as of UNILORIN.
This was why six months ago that The
DEFENDER launched into the
mainstream of Nigerian media
practice the matter was picked up as a
major editorial assignment to be
investigated with a view to unveiling
the truth and reporting the result of
the investigations to the public, in a
society where falsehood told
repeatedly without response makes a
liar truthful, and it was decided that
the result of the investigations would
be made available to the public
without the mindset to witch-hunt
anybody neither to sabotage the
government or any of its institutions.
One thing that this media organisation
insisted on was to wait until after it
had concluded its investigations
before anything was made public
about the matter since the media
outfit was established to be a
difference in Nigerian journalism by
not sensationalising unnecessarily.
In the course of its investigations, all
stakeholders were contacted from the
students, academic and non-academic
staff of the University of Ilorin and
the institution’s administration to the
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu
Adamu and even the Presidency.
Some of the students contacted were
drawn from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun
and Kwara, their views sampled.
Some of them who are now in 300
Level said they never had any issue of
tablets not being given to them. Those
who said they came in 2015 and are
now in 200 Level however confirmed
that truly since they were admitted,
they had not been given tablets they
paid N36,000 for, cost including other
fees as the real cost of tablet was
learned to be N25,000. They however
informed The DEFENDER that the
university authorities briefed them
from time to time why the tablets were
not ready since end of 2015 that they
entered the school. How it became
issue of complaint in the outside world
remained a matter left to people who
were described by some friends of the
university as envying the progresses
being made by the university.
The only alarming area of the tablets
issue however came as some students
claimed that PC tablet this year for
fresh students had been increased
from N36,000 other fees inclusive paid
year to N50,000 this year. One of
them who became apprehensive told
The DEFENDER that, “If the students
before us have not been given tablets,
what is the assurance that we will ever
get ours? Although we have
information that it had never
happened like this before last year.”
This reporter however found out that
on campus in Ilorin, there was no
visible tension neither was there any
apparent apprehension existent to
suggest that there was truly an issue
concerning the tablets.
The DEFENDER was however
applauded by some members of the
university community interacted with
who said, “We want to express our
appreciation that you came all the way
from the comfort of your office in
Lagos to come and see things for
yourself. You have indeed reinforced
our confidence in the ability of the
media to right the many wrongs that
have afflicted our progress in Nigeria
by carriers of false news,” a university
lecturer who pleaded anonymity
particularly said.
This media went to Ilorin for one
clarification but returned to Lagos
overwhelmed by discovery of many
undeniable achievements that no
media organization has ever
mentioned about the Nigeria’s most
subscribed university. The DEFENDER,
though not praise singer of anybody,
has taken it upon itself to serialise the
sweet things that it brought from its
two-day verification visit to the
University of Ilorin community with a
particular media engagement with the
Vice Chancellor, Professor
Abdulganiyu Ambali, who is found to
be another brilliant Nigerian. It
should be noted that Professor
Ambali’s immediate predecessor as
Vice Chancellor is Professor Is-haq
Oloyede, who is currently the
Registrar and Chief Executive of Joint
Admissions and Matriculations Board
(JAMB).
The university, The DEFENDER found
out, apart from being the Nigeria’s
most subscribed higher institution of
learning, also has a feat of having
succeeded in actually being the
Nigeria’s university of many firsts. In
University of Ilorin, power supply is
constant, staple and contributory to
progress and development, all of
which are obvious to even any
unsuspecting visitor.
The visit of this media organisation to
the institution near Tanke in Ilorin
has proved many things: One that the
information about how a former
minister of finance imposed her
personal business in form of tablets
sales to fresh students was merely a
rumour that no sane Nigerian must
join in spreading. Two, that the PC
tablets project is truly existent in
UNILORIN but not in the mode that
was being spread about. It was
discovered that the tablet thing was
just and is still one of the many
projects that the university
administration had put in place to
make University of Ilorin stand out as
best university in Nigeria and
beyond. The visit of this reporter
cleared a mix-up that Professor
Okonjo, a well learned and well
travelled Nigerian leader, Chairman of
the University of Ilorin Governing
Council had the idea of equipping the
students with skill in the ICT which
was also found out to be in line with
existing programme whereby the
university system had already been
operating a paperless and cashless
policy. “There is therefore no reason
to link Professor Okonjo, Chairman of
Council, with Okonjo-Iweala, the
minister of finance. The two are not
the same except that somebody wanted
University of Ilorin to be afraid of
taking steps to move forward and
develop simply because some people
would pose a challenge,” a source in
the university, who said only the Vice
Chancellor could speak clearly on the
matter, told The DEFENDER.
It was the second major national
assignment by The DEFENDER the first
being the interview it conducted in
the Presidency with Special Adviser to
President Muhammadu Buhari on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi
Adesina, on November 27 bothering
on the state of the nation. The visit to
Ilorin therefore by this reporter was
like a heart desire granted by
Almighty Allah whereas, one had
always looked forward to one day he
would be able to make a difference in
Nigerian journalism, trying to get to
roots of matters without just jumping
at conclusion on sensitive national
issues. Hence, the stress of travelling
by road via the very highly trailer-
populated Oyo-Ogbomoso route, which
elongated the three hours journey to
eight hours between 7.30am and
3.30pm, was no issue since achieving
the result for which the travelling was
necessitated mattered most.
Arriving at his Quarters at about 4pm,
having earlier informed him of the
reporter’s visit, the media meeting
with the Vice Chancellor, University of
Ilorin, Professor Abdulganiyu Ambali,
started in earnest.
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