Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, has said that the institution will begin exploration of mineral deposits on its campus, in the near future, with a view to boosting the nation’s economy and Gross Domestic Product.

Na’Allah stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at a symposium organized by the university’s Institute for Legislative Studies, with the theme: “Legislative intervention in Nigeria’s mining sector for sustainable revenue generation.”

He said that the university would start the minerals exploration after all due processes with the government had been finalized, and the institution’s Geology and Mining Department, which is already underway, was established.

The VC said of the effort: “This is also in tandem with Nigeria’s goals of diversifying the economy and increasing the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“All we are trying to do is to mobilize for the development of a department of Geology, which has already been approved by the Senate, to be called Geology and Mining Department.

“We have our strategies on how we want to collaborate with industry, we are intensifying that effort and we hope that in no distance future, we will have this department, with all the strategies.

“ We want to make sure we help the nation’s development through mining on our campus. But it has to be controlled by us.

” We intend to have collaborations with private companies, with industries; that is our intention.

Na’Allah also said that to make mining exploration more productive, the Nigerian government must partner effectively with the private sector, as private sector partnership would bring more accountability.

Prof. Sheriff Ibrahim, the Director of the Institute for Legislative Studies, said the symposium aimed at driving for an overhaul of the mining sector and its legislations, to create a boom in the sector.

“It was unfortunate that Nigeria, which is the largest economy in Africa, is still a monoculture economy, with all the focus only on oil and gas,” he said, lamenting that the mining sector contributed only between 0.3 to 0.55 to the country’s annual GDP because it has not been fully harnessed.

Ibrahim said in countries such as South Africa, mining accounts for 25 per cent of the nation’s economy, and 40 per cent in Botswana, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is about 18 percent.

“Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa, but still remains a monoculture economy, not succeeding in diversifying the economy of this particular sector.

“When President Buhari came in 2015, his main priority, as he pointed out, was to diversify the Nigerian economy and look into the mining sector.

“In Nigeria, we have just 0.3 or 0.55 contribution from mining to our annual GDP and that is because the sector is not fully harnessed.

“The mining Act and regulations exist, but the problems are execution and implementation, as well as rigid monitoring and evaluation of this particular sector.

“We want legislative amendments, as well as other submissions from the legislative arm, which will guarantee an adequate and efficient utilization of this sector, for better and adequate revenue generation for Nigeria,” Ibrahim said.

Dr Mainasara Umar, an International Law Analyst, said that the government should be prepared to invest heavily in the development of the mining sector to attract Foreign investors, in order to generate more revenues for the country.

Umar also stressed the need for securing mining areas and sites in the light of the banditry in Nigeria’s North West zone and some other regions which began when exploration started on mines sites in the states.

“If government cannot invest heavily, we should be able to attract foreign investments going by section 19 of the Constitution which talks about our foreign policy drive.

“Section 19 has five sub-sections and the fifth one talks about us contributing toward the economic and security wellbeing of the world and mining is one of those areas that have been a turbulent all over the world.

“So, security of lives and property would be guaranteed in as much as we want to extract minerals as a means of boosting our revenue generation base,” he added.

Umar averred that the government should prioritise and make budgetary allocations to the mining sector, so as to enable the possibility of establishing Free Trade Zones.

“We should have legislations to streamline the conflict of ownership of land in the Land Use Act and the control of mineral resources by the Federal Government.

” The Land Use Act by the state government is the legislation that should be geared towards solving that problem.

“There should be legislations to improve security at mining sites. There should be security, otherwise it would not be conducive, especially going by international mining where you have several expatriates going into the sites.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has adopted a minimum cut-off mark for 2021 admissions.

JAMB Registrar Prof Ishaq Oloyede displayed the minimum cut-off marks adopted by tertiary institutions at the 2021 policy meeting on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to the new arrangement, universities are not allowed to go below 120 while polytechnics and Colleges of Education, are not allowed to go below 100 for admission.

This means that there will be no uniform cut-off marks for the 2021/2022 admissions.

On the deadline for the closure of admissions, the meeting resolved to allow the education ministry to reach a decision as they could not agree on the December 31, deadline for all public institutions and January 31, 2022, for all private institutions.

The next meeting is scheduled for October.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, is among heads of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions which the Nigerian government has vowed to punish for engaging in what it described as illegal admission exercises.

The education minister, Adamu Adamu, who issued the threat on Tuesday in Abuja at the 2021 admission policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), accused the concerned institutions of flouting the government’s directive.

This was as the minister also formally announced the commencement of the admission processes for the 2021/2022 academic session, even as guidelines for the process were released including the free will offered the individual institutions to set cut-off marks as approved by the policy meeting.

Mr Adamu, who was represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Sonny Echono, said appropriate sanctions would be meted against defaulting heads of agencies.

Mr Echono, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the minister, noted that the actions of the institutions usually alter the country’s statistics of admitted candidates and those not admitted annually.

He said; “It is in furtherance of the goal of safeguarding the integrity of the admission process that all institutions were told that admission made outside the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) is unacceptable to the system.

“It is saddening that despite the clear directives at previous policy meetings some institutions still illegally admitted candidates outside CAPS. I consider such an act as a direct affront on the system and appropriate sanctions shall be applied on those found to have been involved in such a disruptive act. Similarly, any institution that issued admission letters to candidates outside CAPS will be punished for such gross indiscipline and fraud.”

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For instance, the minister said a total of 255,928 illegal admissions were conducted by various institutions in 2015 for the 2014 academic calendar while the figure stood at 190,407 in 2016 for the 2015 academic calendar.

However, the minister said there was a sharp decline in the figure in 2017 when it recorded only 43,852 illegal admission figure for the 2016 academic calendar.

UNIABUJA in focus
Earlier, during his presentation at the meeting, the JAMB registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, displayed proofs of infractions allegedly committed by institutions and particularly the University of Abuja.

Mr Oloyede said a candidate already admitted to study medicine by Baze University, Abuja, was surreptitiously offered admission by UNIABUJA to study the same MBBS programme without going through the CAPS.

The admission body also gave an evidence of a candidate who opted to study law at the university but was offered Political Science and that an admission letter was issued to the candidate without recourse to JAMB.

TEXEM

The registrar gave in evidence that; “Omosanya Faozeeyat Odunayo applied to University of Abuja to study Law with a score of 251. By 30th March, 2021 she had been issued ‘Letter of Admission’ by the University for Political Science

“As of Monday, 30th August, 2021 (5 months after), she is yet to be proposed on CAPS by the university.”

Earlier in April, JAMB had accused the management of the university and other unnamed institutions of illegally admitting students during the 2020/2021 admission processes.

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JAMB, in a statement signed by its head of Public Affairs and Protocol unit, Fabian Benjamin, declared the admissions conducted by the university as null and void.

The examination body reiterated that it remains the only body statutorily empowered to issue admission letters to successful candidates of universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics in Nigeria.

Varsity denies allegation
The university’s spokesman, Habib Yakoob, denies any wrongdoing, saying the university has always adhered to admission rules “to a large extent.”

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He acknowledged that the conflict between the examination body has been on for some time but that as much as he knows the university has not erred.

He said; “I don’t know… You know what, if you have been covering this beat for quite some time, particularly in the last couple of years, you would have noticed this back and forth between the university and JAMB, and our position has always been clear. So I am surprised this is coming up again.

“As far the university is concerned we adhere strictly to the rule, to a large extent, set by JAMB. So I do not think we violate this policy on CAPS. That is the much I can say for now.”

When confronted with the fact of an example given by the JAMB registrar, Mr Yakoob said he didn’t have the details of such a candidate.

2021 admission kicks off
Meanwhile, with the policy meeting successfully held, the admission process for the 2021/2022 calendar has formally commenced in the country.

But following what it described as varying recommendations cut-off marks, the policy meeting agreed that individual institutions should enjoy the free will to determine its minimum cut-off marks for admission.

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According to the JAMB registrar, the University of Maiduguri proposed 150 as its minimum cut-off mark, Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto proposed 140, Pan Atlantic University proposed 210, University of Lagos, 200; Lagos State University, 190; Covenant University, 190 and Bayero University Kano wanted 180 as its cut off mark.

Meanwhile, the meeting also concluded that October 29, 2021, should be the deadline for any amendment to the 2020 admission but could not agree on the December deadline for the 2021 admission for public schools and January 31, 2022 for private tertiary institutions.

Admission guidelines
Ahead of the commencement of the 2021 admission processes, the stakeholders which comprised heads of various institutions, admission officers and registrars, also adopted the set guidelines, which provide that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, NCE, OND, and others must be posted only through the examination body.

Speaking on the stakeholders’ decision on other admission criteria, Mr Oloyede said the candidate’s credentials must be uploaded on CAPS as recommended by the institutions of choice while JAMB approves and the candidate accepts the offer of admission.

According to the meeting, the 2021 admissions will be conducted only through CAPS, no institution is allowed to admit candidates without uploading their details on CAPS.

Meanwhile, the meeting also exempted prison inmates, visually impaired and foreign candidates from sitting for post UTME exercise.

*Alleged Illegal Admission: Nigerian government to sanction UNIABUJA VC, others*

The vice-chancellor of the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, is among heads of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions which the Nigerian government has vowed to punish for engaging in what it described as illegal admission exercises.

The education minister, Adamu Adamu, who issued the threat on Tuesday in Abuja at the 2021 admission policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), accused the concerned institutions of flouting the government’s directive.

This was as the minister also formally announced the commencement of the admission processes for the 2021/2022 academic session, even as guidelines for the process were released including the free will offered the individual institutions to set cut-off marks as approved by the policy meeting.

Adamu, who was represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Sonny Echono, said appropriate sanctions would be meted against defaulting heads of agencies.

Echono, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the minister, noted that the actions of the institutions usually alter the country’s statistics of admitted candidates and those not admitted annually.

He said; “It is in furtherance of the goal of safeguarding the integrity of the admission process that all institutions were told that admission made outside the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) is unacceptable to the system.

“It is saddening that despite the clear directives at previous policy meetings some institutions still illegally admitted candidates outside CAPS. I consider such an act as a direct affront on the system and appropriate sanctions shall be applied on those found to have been involved in such a disruptive act.

Similarly, any institution that issued admission letters to candidates outside CAPS will be punished for such gross indiscipline and fraud.”

JAMB, in a statement signed by its head of Public Affairs and Protocol unit, Fabian Benjamin, declared the admissions conducted by the university as null and void.

The examination body reiterated that it remains the only body statutorily empowered to issue admission letters to successful candidates of universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics in Nigeria.