THE TRUE FACE OF BINGHAM (ECWA)
UNIVERSITY
‘UNIVERSITY WITH A DIFFERENCE’
About the University
Bingham
University is a private university which was conceived by the Evangelical
Church Winning All (ECWA) in 2006; it is located 26Km along Abuja-Keffi express
way, Karu, Nassarawa State. The university is under the governance of Professor
Felix Anjorin, the vice chancellor and S .S. Sule, the registrar alongside the
Board of the Institution.
Bingham
University offers the following courses; Business Administration, Economics,
Mass Communication, Biochemistry, Microbiology, English, Medicine And Surgery, Sociology,
Political Science, Computer Science,
Accounting, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology,
Anatomy, Physiology and Industrial Chemistry.
Bingham
University offers medicine at the cost of 1.07 million NGN for clinical
students; #775,000NGN for pre-clinical students; #520,000NGN for all the
sciences and #440,000NGN for Humanities and social sciences. Besides the fees,
Bingham University receives financial support from all the ECWA churches in the
federation
Its Pride
Since
its inception, it has always been regarded as a ‘University with a difference’.
This is so because it has maintained a high academic standard and strict
discipline to moral misappropriation. It is amongst the few
Universities that
have Human Medicine (Medicine and Surgery) accredited alongside other majors.
It picks students from every facet of life based on merit and those with
unquestionable moral background by organizing post UTME (which is usually
computer based) yearly.
Its Flaws
From
its name, ‘Bingham University’, one will definitely have high expectation about
the university. But one has to be enrolled into the university to find out that
the name never corresponds with the affairs and condition of the institution.
Bingham
University is an institution in which a practical approach to developmental
initiative and proper administration is below the standard or reputation ECWA
has built over the years through history. With reason being that; since I was
enrolled, there has not being any infrastructural development. The fact that
I’ve not seen any development doesn’t mean there are many structures and there
is no need for developing more; but that there are just a few structures which
are not sufficient for the population, and nothing is done about it.
Bingham
has maintained the record of being the only private university in Nigeria in
which its students have ever protested due to lack of light and water for an
unbearable period of time. The effect of poor administration in this
institution has eluded the tenets which should be inculcated in its students.
Few and Substandard Structures
There
are just few structures in the institution, most of which were donated by
individuals ( e.g. General T Y Danjuma, Shera Agwai) or their completion aided
by contribution. All these structures are inadequate for all the students to
take lectures, so the structures are demarcated using ply woods so as to
increase the number of lecture halls. Many times, students struggle over venues
for lectures and other extracurricular activities.
The
little developments done in the school are usually catalyzed by events such as convocation and matriculation of new
students which as at 2011, was the reason for the painting of the
administrative and science block. We really pay a lot to deserve the reception
we are presented with. Little and delayed efforts were made for the chapel to
be completed and now we have just moved into it after the roofing without any
visible efforts of furnishing it. There
are so many laid down foundations in the schools which have been left to fallow
and no visible human effort has been expressed toward the completion of such
undone projects. Each student pays NGN30, 000 for developmental fee and as
stated earlier, no form of development has been seen in Bingham only for the
foundations that have been present since the inception of the school
The
road into the school is irregrettably an apology. The road has been marred by forces of erosion due to absence of a
proper layout of drainage system. The whole school has no drainage system which
keeps the institution susceptible to flood with a poor aesthetic appearance.
Due to the absence of drainage system layout, the surroundings of the Halls of
residence are logged with water from the tap outlets, inhabiting various microorganism
and other pathogens. As a result of which the incidence of malarial disease is
actually on the increase.
Streets
lights required to illuminate the various road paths in this institution are
lacking. This makes the students susceptible to attack from unfriendly
creatures (both humans and other lower animals like reptiles) at night. Also,
at night, in the absence of light from PHCN, the school generator only supplies
to just a few lecture halls; which makes it very inconvenient for most students
to read at such nights.
The
rooms in the halls of residence are very low that students (those who stay on
up bunk) usually get injured by the fan in motion. This also makes the rooms
inhabitable in hot weather. Also, the electrical wiring of the Halls of residence
is so unprofessional such that power usually trips off at intervals of less
than 3- 4 days forcing the electrician to always come by in order to fix it;
though it takes a decade for you to find the electrician.
Poor Administration
Bingham
students have periodically suffered from the poor administration rendered by
the management of the institution. It has exhibited this in many ways; but the
pen-able few include;
On
the campus, the numbers of service providers are so few that we experience exploitation and monopoly and the school does nothing about it. Of which the
university is supposed to set up a committee to monitor the price of everything
sold in the campus as done in other universities. All these are supposed to be
in place to avoid the menace that exploitation can confer on a populace. I
believe that we all know the pain of being exploited especially when there is
feeling that such is happening that way because we do not have a choice or when
you have knowledge of the actual cost of something outside the four walls of
these university. With all due respect, it’s not a mere feeling.
Due
to the presence of the most dreaded sect in Nigeria, many organisations,
institutions and any form of gathering have developed a level of security
consciousness and have thus adopted several policies to do that. As a result of
that, Bingham stopped the entry of bikes from the express way into school which
is an ‘Israelite journey’. Yes it’s a good policy, but the school only made
provision for only one ‘Keke Napep’ and a taxi for all the over 1500 students.
How on earth will that carter for all the students? This has now created an
opportunity for the transport workers to exploit the student and has also been
really stressful for some students who have to trek all the way to the gate.
Even
the provision of common rooms for the Halls of Residence is a herculean task
for the school. Students have to organize, by their own power to ensure that
they get acquainted with the happenings in the world by dashing from one cafeteria
to the other or even pay to watch football matches in the supposed lecture
theatre thus, being a source of nuisance to students who are in such places
prior to the game time to study. Of course the main issue of the moment.
Conclusion
I
believe the school never puts the welfare of the students into consideration but
their fees. We pay a lot and we don’t see the effect of our money. They have no
justification for the lack of implementation of the things required because the
fees have been broken down into sections and hence, we should be seeing changes
in such areas as stated. Upon the fees and the budgeted money the school
receives from all the ECWA churches
in the federation each year, the university has not changed a bit. We are not in the capacity to build the
school; the school should have been built before the enrolment of students.
The students have no say because the
so called Students Representative Council either receive dictations from the
school or are afraid of suspension or even expulsion if they voice out. A
couple of years ago, some of the students who protested over the lack of basic
amenities were all expelled. If one is to say everything in plain ink I don’t
think we would have a soon concluding complaint. But a rethink and amendment of
its ways by its management would be of great help.
Michael King
michaelking0044@gmail.com
