THE TRUE FACE OF BINGHAM (ECWA) UNIVERSITY by Michael King

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

Abuja, Nigeria.