Adieu! What a sad loss! I received this news with shock. Death still holds the poisonous sting! I met Prof Yaqub in the waiting room of the Executive Secretary of National University Commission in 2006. Prof Okebukola was in his final term. We exchanged a greeting and went into conversation. I finally revealed that I was a member of the NUC board representing a Minstry. With his huge frame, he stood up to my embarrassment to greet me well. Imagine an Assistant Director. Yes, that was my rank, then, getting that compliment from a University Vice Chancellor. We laughed it off, and I told him he was the boss.
Fast track to two years later: My son applied to the University of Abuja to study Business Administration. While we were not too much optimistic about JAMB admission, I took him to Joseph Ayo Babalola University [JABU] in Osun State for examination. The whole process lasted for a whole day, and the following day, the admission was given. While waiting on the queue to pay, I got a call that the Post UME for UniAbuja was out, and my son was on no 17 on the merit score list.
With that good news, I terminated his ambition to be one of the pioneers of that good school. I rushed to the car and drove through out the night to Abuja. The roads then were good-no kidnappers, no checkpoints, no armed robbers. We eventually got to Gwagwlada about 3 am. The anxiety didn’t allow me to drive home straight. Worn out and seriously knackered, I drove to the university. With the torchlight, I confirmed that the poor boy was actually on the list. Only 12 candidates scored more than 4 of them, and he was on number 17 on the list. With that, I had 100 per cent assurance of admission.
A week later, I was out of Abuja when my daughter called that the list of admissions was out and my son’s name wasn’t on the list. Impossible! I called a brother working with WAEC to double-check. He confirmed, and he said there would be a second list. How on earth did the Business Administration department admit 138, and my son was not on the list?
I hurriedly came to Abuja and straight from the airport to the school. I met the Ag Dean who referred me to the HOD. The HOD checked the second list. The name didn’t feature. I sat down in the car, not knowing what to tell the boy who would have been saved the stress if he had resumed in JABU. I headed straight to the VC office. It was then a small office that looked like a labour line on the temporary site. I filled the visitor’s form, and I was immediately granted access to him. Prof Yaqub, in his humility, still recognised me and made me comfortable in his office. After he finished what he was doing, he joined me on his visitor’s chair, and without wasting time, I narrated my request. He swung into action and called the HOD.
The HOD had no explanation. It was then that it dawned on the VC that there was admission racketeering in UniAbuja. Pay handsomely, and you would get admission. My friend, who was a billionaire and owned auto franchise in Abuja, paid a large sum of money to get his son’s admission. But we couldn’t get him to stand among the witnesses during the in-house enquiry due to some personal losses.
The outcome resulted in several heads rolling. Faculty of Law had the highest incidents. Sanity was restored to the admission process and procedures, and that was a great legacy of Prof Nuhu Yaqub. He lived a simple life with no resort to self glorification. He was an academic par excellence.
Adieu, the people’s professor!
Olagbaju, a retired Federal Director of Rural Development, writes from Abuja.
