29th June, 2015
To some people, it would sound strange that some students in tertiary institutions are non academic students. This category of students that abound in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education have no business being there. These are students that were expelled for various reasons, some for examination malpractice or involvement in cult activities or found their way into the citadel of learning by lying to their parents or guardians that they had been admitted in order to get money from their parents.
These non academic students constitute a bad influence on genuine students who are in the university to pursue their various degrees. Non academic students are the ones that spearhead cult activities and protests. Since they have nothing to lose, they usually engage in acts that paralyse academic activities in tertiary institutions. To worsen matters, some spend between 10-15 years on campus without graduating because they are not there to achieve any academic goal in the first place.
They even wield enormous influence to the extent that they also sell bed spaces to students that want to reside on campus. And they are a law unto themselves.They also lay claim to privileges genuine students ought to enjoy. Although they may not be known to the school authorities and fresh students, they are well known to older students. They trick their parents for money and are actively involved in social life on campus.
It is time these fake students who influence bona fide students negatively are flushed out of the universities and polytechnics. The school authorities and the security personnel on campuses must ensure that any student expelled for any reason must not be allowed to remain on campus. It is the lax security on campuses that has allowed all manner of charlatans to roam the campuses in the guise of being students.
The problem has persisted because parents have also failed to play their roles effectively. They do not monitor their children closely to know if they were really in school studying or just playing pranks. This is a serious challenge parents have to take up.
The huge presence of non academic students on campuses is a reflection of the ills plaguing our society. This must not continue as these non academic students could transform into armed robbers, kidnappers, drug addicts and other hardened criminals that could ultimately unleash terror on the larger society. The menace is a ticking time bomb that must be detonated before it explodes.
Tertiary institutions have enough challenges on their hands to grapple with. The danger posed by non academic students shouldn’t be added to those crippling challenges such as dilapidated infrastructure, poorly equipped libraries and laboratories for research.