Nigeria’s Sokoto University Puts Fresh Graduates Through Hell to Obtain Their Results

It is one thing to successfully graduate from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), it is another thing to obtain your results itch-free. Abduljalal Dahiru, a recent graduate from the ivory tower is a testament to the tedious verification process many students face after concluding their academic sojourn.

Every morning, he would take his credentials to different offices to be signed. His attention was diverted from writing his final year research project to completing the strenuous process involved in signing the clearance forms. He started from his faculty to the students’ affairs division. After spending a month without completion, he got exhausted and suspended the process.

“I didn’t go for the clinic signing. And in the office where we are collecting notifications, they will check your last payment and the clearance form. If they see that you have signed in all the places, they will give you the notification of the result,” he noted.

Abduljalal was deeply saddened by the disdainful treatment he received from the officials who were signing students’ documents, as they told him several times to go and come back or claim they had something to do. 

On a sunny afternoon on Tuesday, May 2024, at the bursary department, many UDUS graduates queued in front of the accountant’s office where they submitted their documents for clearance and verification. However, despite submitting early, some of the students had to trek to the office several times before collecting their signed documents. This has been a frustrating norm in UDUS over the years for university graduates.

When this reporter visited the area, he saw students’ credentials that were verified and signed, spread out on the ground like trash in a dump site, gleaming with particles of dust in the corridor of the office. 

For the students to see their signed documents, they must stand for hours checking all the piles of papers or squat down, opening through each of them to identify their own. Eventually, due to tiredness, some of the students were seen leaning on the walls while others sat on the hedges of the veranda, after long hours of futile checks. At UDUS, every graduate must submit all relevant documents as part of the requirements to be verified and cleared as a graduate. In the routine of signing out, the faculty, clinic, library, students’ affairs, bursary, and the student union will have to sign the documents before a student can scale through to collect notification of the result.

The students must go around the offices for days, weeks, and even months. This was done with a signature and stamp. Bypassing the process means denying collecting the notification of the result. At the time of writing this report, the notification of many graduates has been released from various departments.

Returning from the bursary section, Aliyu Kabir, a Computer Science graduate, was sweating profusely, his legs looking dusty due to the overwhelming stress he endured going around the school to sign forms.

“I have been going there many times now, but my own is not signed yet. Meanwhile, I submitted it two days ago. I am tired already,” he said. 

Frustratingly, Aliyu vowed not to go there again, after making a long trip from Katsina to Sokoto, down to UDUS, to complete his sign-out verification process. He spent two days on the process, yet he didn’t collect it, as he kept waiting for his documents to be stamped before collecting his notification results.

Before Aliyu left the campus for Katsina, he gave this reporter his ID card to help him collect his documents if they were signed. However, arriving on the first day at the location, and rubbing shoulders with other graduates, this reporter endured a torrid time. He stood and squatted for hours, trying to search through some of the signed documents to find Aliyu’s, but to no avail. It was not signed, so the reporter had to come back again. 

The next morning, more students gathered, others forming short groups, waiting for the early ones to finish searching before joining the fray to look for their documents. They hoped to be among the lucky ones to collect theirs. While others wore long faces, as it seemed they would have to come another day or wait again. When this reporter couldn’t find Aliyu’s documents, he was disappointed.

The third day was more appalling, as some students were seen raging for not seeing their signed documents. After searching the whole papers, some of Aliyu’s documents were seen but torn to pieces, while others were nowhere to be found. Out of disappointment, the reporter informed Aliyu of the situation over the phone.

Aliyu lamented, saying: “Seriously, these people are supposed to sign this immediately after submission, but they won’t until after three weeks or months. Look at how they dump my papers. Why don’t they keep students’ documents safe in the office? How can I collect my notification of the result now?”

Okon Solomon, a graduate of Pure and Applied Chemistry, complained of not seeing his documents after submitting them on Wednesday, May 18, 2024. His documents were clipped together in fear of the current scenario he was facing. 

Hopefully, Okon prayed to see it in the signing office. He said during his multiple trips to the area, he saw one of the missing payment receipts belonging to his course mate, who had searched for it for a few days. He disclosed further that his remaining documents were yet to be found, adding that he searched all the dumped papers but couldn’t see the missing ones despite being tightly clipped. 

Okon said he also saw some 100-level students who didn’t see their accommodation documents when they brought them to be signed. Expressing fear for not seeing his documents, he said: “If you tell the person given notification of the result that you didn’t see it or it’s torn to pieces, they will blame you and say it’s your carelessness. They will not understand what you have been through. Then you will go and get another clearance form and start from the beginning.”

The manual exercise of signing out and the verification clearance process has put a lot of pressure and uneven stress on all the students on campus, especially the female students. Hauwa Abubakar, a graduate of Adult Education, faced a surmountable challenge leaving Zamfara for Sokoto for the submission of her documents. After arriving, she couldn’t free herself from the torrent of the sun, as she was instructed to come back the following day for her papers. 

Disappointingly, Hauwa’s plan was cut short. She wanted to immediately use her papers to collect her notification and depart the same day. On the advice of her friend who accompanied her to the office, Hauwa thoughtfully hung around to see whether she could get it before sunset. She went to a secluded area, blew out the dust, and sat down, chatting with her course mates. When her course mates left, she started yawning and decided to check her papers again to see whether they were signed, but more students were in the doorway and were sent away. Sadly, Hauwa left too.

“I am travelling now. I am going back to Zamfara, my hometown. I don’t know if I can come back again to get it. The worst part is that I would not collect my notification until I finish it,” she decried.

Hauwa was not the only one bearing the mark of such disappointment. On May 18 2024, at the same location, Comfort Ogochukwu, a student of Biochemistry, sat under a shed of tree, looking directly at the signing office. She arrived early, exactly 8:30 a.m. to avoid the crowd and finish her signing on time. However, she found nobody in the office. All the doors were locked. She waited till 11 a.m.

When the officials finally arrived, she was told to drop her papers and come back again. The next day, Comfort met a lady in the office, but she was not able to collect her papers. Not knowing what to do, she walked a few steps away from the office and decided to wait. Nonetheless, her long wait became fruitless as the office was later closed, and students dispersed one after the other.

“It’s not funny. I came today and yesterday. I have to keep coming here multiple times. This manual verification signing is not helping matters. It’s too stressful,” she lamented.

During the university’s 2024 combined convocation held in April for the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st sets, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Lawal Suleiman Bilbis said there were more than 13,000 graduates, with 167 first-class graduates, 3,486 with second-class upper, 9,573 bagged second-class lower, and 15 with pass degrees. This large number of graduates passed through a strenuous process stress during the signing of the clearance form and verification exercise.

In a bid to mitigate the challenges of graduates, the students are calling on the school management to adopt digitalisation of verification and clearance, which is putting a lot of constraints on collecting notification of results at the end of their studies.

Mahammad Saifullahi, a final-year student of English and Literary Studies, said, “The digitalisation of the signing out is going to ease the affairs of students. Students will be able to do the verification in a day if it’s online. It’s better than the manual one when a student will spend weeks or months going round the offices.”

Annabel Onoja, a final-year student of Biochemistry, said a better system should be used, especially the online system, to make it easier for students. “For example, I submitted my documents for three days, I came all the time, but the paper was not yet signed. The current system is not helping matters.”

Echoing Annabel’s statement, Abduljalal emphasised that if the university can accept, they should make it online. “Students will be happy a lot, and it will reduce a lot of stress.”

One of the officials verifying and signing students’ clearance, who identified herself as Ma’aruf K. O, said students are responsible for scattering the documents after she arranged them.

“The reason why we are keeping it outside is because of those who will be coming to check their own. These things are many, more than two hundred. We can’t keep them in the office. If I leave the office now for just an hour, many students will come and be looking for their own. I think that is the simplest way to get their things.” 

When she was questioned about the students’ plea for online verification, she said: “We are doing the verification online. They will come with their receipts, and show their Remita number. If the money enters the university account, we will now sign on top of their receipts and verify it to collect their notification of the result. And if the process can be done completely online, there is no problem. The students can write to the management to do it that way.”

When the Dean of Student Affairs of the university, Prof. Umar Aliyu, was informed about the students’ ordeals, he responded, “I am hearing it from you now for the first time. I will try and find out with the verification committee how they operate. So if there are issues, we will know how to solve them. Concerning digitalisation, the students’ union should be contacted so that we can forward it to the management.”

However, at the time of filing this report, the students union chairman, Comrade Abdullahi  Sanusi, refused to respond to calls and multiple messages sent to him.