Medical students at Baze University in Abuja have accused the school management of lying about its Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery accreditations in order to admit more students than it could accommodate.
The founder and Pro-Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja is Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election.
SaharaReporters gathered that the university is allowed by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to admit only 100 students annually but the management is acting against this directive by running a three-semester per session programme to accommodate more students than its capacity.
According to the students, the school is more concerned about the profit it will make at the end of each year than their advancement. They said many of them had been frustrated, leading some of them to abandon their programmes.
“The school is running three semesters against the normal two semesters to admit more students and get more money.
“An average student pays over N5 million for tuition fees, but despite this huge amount of money, we are not certain of when we will finish the programme because of the delay. The school is not organised; there is no calendar,” one of the affected students told SaharaReporters.
The students also told SaharaReporters that the university management was not sincere about its accreditation status to deceive students and ensure enrollment in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programmes.
“I just finished my exam and I don’t even know when next I would resume for the next session and this is what all of us are facing in the school. The last 300 level set spent about three years in that level,” one of the student sources added.
He continued: “The school lies about almost everything when it comes to MBBS. If you are going there for the first time to gain admission to the 100 level, and you ask them about MDCN (Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria) accreditation, they would tell you they have accreditation.”
MDCN is a body in charge of running MBBS across Nigeria.
“In reality, they just want to get your money and once you reach the 200 level and it’s time for your promotional exam to 300 level, it will take ages before you take the exam. They will make one stay in school for nothing.
“To cut the story short, they haven’t got the MDCN accreditation because they haven’t met the requirements but will lie to gullible parents that they have got it,” one of the students said.
SaharaReporters learnt that some students have abandoned their programmes in the school despite their investment and the time they have spent there.
According to sources in the school, the students learned that the entire MBBS programme in the school was designed solely for the benefit of the management.
“Most of us would have left but since it is medicine and surgery, it’s not easy to get admission into other schools like that,” one of the aggrieved students said.
The school provost, Professor Taoffeeq Ibrahim did not answer despite repeated calls to his mobile line to get his reaction to our findings. At the time of filing this report, he had also not replied to text messages sent to him.
