Eight nursing students are dead, dozens more are without results a year after sitting their final examinations, and a civil society group says the federal and state governments can no longer afford to look away.
The Take It Back Movement issued a statement through its Public Relations Officer, Oluwatosin Adeyemi, directing its demands at the Oyo State Government and the Federal Ministry of Education, and describing the situation within LAUTECH's nursing programme as one that had crossed from administrative failure into a matter of life, rights and accountability.
The group's account of events begins with results. It is alleged that nursing students who completed their final examinations more than a year ago have had their names withheld from the graduating list with no formal explanation offered. "For over one year, several students who completed their final examinations have reportedly had their names withheld from the graduating list without explanation. Repeated appeals for clarification have allegedly been met with silence. This prolonged uncertainty is unacceptable and constitutes a violation of students' academic and human rights," the statement read.
The situation, according to the movement, became fatal when students were compelled to travel from Delta State to Ogbomoso, Oyo State, to resolve academic matters in person. The group alleged that those journeys, made under unsafe conditions, led to an accident that claimed eight lives, six of them nursing students. It described the institution's response to the tragedy as delayed and deeply inadequate. "The insensitivity and delayed response of the institution to these tragedies raise serious moral and administrative questions," it said.
The Take It Back Movement questioned why students were being forced to undertake dangerous interstate travel in an age where digital and decentralised examination systems are standard practice across much of the world. "In a 21st century academic environment, where technology enables decentralised and ICT based examinations globally, it is indefensible to compel students to travel under risky circumstances. Any policy that prioritises bureaucracy over human life must be immediately reviewed," the group said.
The allegations do not stop there. It described the alleged use of transcripts and certificates as leverage against students who spoke out as a particularly serious abuse. "Education must never be used as an instrument of intimidation," the statement said.
"Victimisation of students for lawful expression is a direct assault on democratic principles," the movement stated.
Its demands include the immediate release of all withheld results where no lawful basis for withholding them exists, an independent federal investigation into allegations of negligence and extortion, an immediate end to student intimidation, the adoption of technology driven examination alternatives and full accountability for anyone found responsible for rights violations or financial misconduct.
LAUTECH has not publicly responded to any of the allegations. Until it does, the questions being raised by the Take It Back Movement and by the students at the centre of this dispute will continue to grow harder to ignore.
