How the ABU Zaria Admission Process works

By Abubakar A Rafindadi

Honestly, the person who wrote the piece “Injustice to one is an injustice to all” is completely ignorant of the process of admission to Ahmadu BELLO University Zaria.

For those of us that wrote Jamb three times, passed all, and failed to secure admission who also are from the catchment area of the University felt the same way but later got to understand the process & how it works!

There are some unique facts about ABU Zaria that we must appreciate which includes among so many others; ABU is the most cosmopolitan University in the whole of Africa, not even Nigeria. It’s no news that ABU Zaria has students from each one of the 774 local governments in the country which makes it a mini Nigeria.

When it comes to teaching staff, ABU is the only record holder of having at least one senior staff from each one of the 36 states in Nigeria and it has remained so to date. So in essence, not even the University of Abuja that is in the heart of Nigeria can boast of having students from all the 774 local governments or staff from each of the 36 states in the Country. We should be proud of ABU Zaria

I can personally attest to the fact that each Departmental admission guideline clearly spells out three criteria and it religiously adhered to which includes:

• 1. Merit list 45% of the total students admitted to the department. At least 2 to 3 students with the highest score from each state.

• 2. Catchment area list 35%. Like any other university in Nigeria ABU considers students from its selected States as its catchment area.

• 3. Less Educationally developed states list 20%. In other to give candidates in some selected states that are not as educationally developed as the others a chance to be in ABU as they are at a disadvantage and cannot stand their colleagues from the opposite side

This makes 100% for each department and in doing this no state is left out. Please tell me which other University in Nigeria can say the same of their institution? I’ll tell you the answer for free “NONE”.

As regards the case of one Goodness Thomas, she would have made it for the MBBS Merit list from her state but unfortunately, she was number 7 on the list in terms of jamb score from Niger state and only the first two were picked as it is in the case with all other 36 states and the FCT, she also wouldn’t have made it for the 2nd & 3rd criteria for admission as the number from the Medical and Dental Board limits ABU MBBS to only 120 students per session so please do the maths.

How would you have admitted Goodness into MBBS and justify it even if you are on the admissions committee?

It is also important that I call the attention of the writer of this mischievous piece, that Goodness Thomas was quick to change her 1st choice to ‘Anatomy’ from MBBS seeing she didn’t make the 1st list and she was admitted in the 2nd list of admission which she accepted gladly and quickly, so why are people been mischievous and sharing very wrong information on social media?

I have seen the list of about 25 candidates this year alone from Kwara, Benue and Kogi states who scored above 300 and didn’t make the list for MBBS but unfortunately, their representatives don’t have social media handles to speak out on their behalf.

This year alone ABU received more than 40,000 qualified candidates which are the largest number of applicants for any university in Nigeria and Jamb gave ABU the clearance to take in 11,000 candidates which is also the highest number any university is taking in this year, so who will speak for the over 29,000 qualified candidates? Even ASUU is crying that academic staff are overstretched due to the lecturer to student ratio at the moment.

As it stands, ABU is among the 1st generation of universities in Nigeria and there have been plans from the management under the leadership of Prof. Ibrahim Garba with support from the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) and the Ministry of Education for ABU to Migrate into a fully pledged Post-Graduate University and that can only happen if the number of undergraduates intake is cut by more than half the number its currently taking in.

So please let’s call all mischief-makers to order and if anyone has any issue on the admission of a candidate to write to the University rather than embarking on a campaign of calumny on social media to dent the reputation of a University we all hold Dear.

Shared by: Abubakar A Rafindad, An Abusite

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