THE SUBJECT OF ‘CLEARANCE’ IN NIGERIA’S HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR – AN OUTDATED PRACTICE THAT SHOULD BE STOPPED AND REPLACED WITH MODERN AUTOMATED PRACTICE

We find it appalling that in this modern era of information technology, which has practically made life a lot easier and things faster in other developed societies, Nigerians are still made to suffer untold hardship from extortion, risking their lives, wasting time, energy and resources, to being made to go through archaic and outdated practices in the name of one Clearance or the other. In fact, the term ‘CLEARANCE’ has been so abused and bastardized to heightened annoying levels, that Nigerians – rather than question ‘why we still do some of these things in this modern era? They have accepted it as ‘normal’ and nothing wrong with it. While the issue of ‘CLEARANCE’ is observed being practiced within Government functionaries and agencies, we would focus on this practice in Nigeria’s Higher Education sector.

There is no doubt that Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics, which has increased in number over the years, graduate thousands of students from their various institutions every year. But we find it appalling that the nation’s higher institutions, rather than ‘automate the processes that leads to students’ graduation’, so as to improve efficiency, reduce paper use and eliminate ineffective manual processes, they are still bogged down by “many paper-heavy processes”, hence they are still doing the ‘manual Clearance process’, in this modern era. It is during this so-called Clearance process, that graduating Nigerian students are coerced to pay for one thing or the other, risk their lives traveling back and forth to/from their school/homes, exposed to all kinds of stress – just to graduate after their final exams. It is even worse for Law graduating students from the different tertiary institutions, who are forced to travel all the way to Abuja – Nigerian Law School for clearance.

For the rest Nigerian graduates who have read other disciplines, there is also the problem of them not being able to obtain their Original Certificates from their Alma matter, due to one reason or the other. The best they can give you, after going through the rigorous Clearance process, is a mere Success Letter to indicate that the student has written his final exams. So, that joy of every student to come out with flying colours at the end of his/her chosen course and be issued with a Certificate promptly at the end of their final examinations, is cut short and prolonged unnecessarily. This will no doubt assist him/her in embarking upon the next line of action which most times may involve using the Certificate to pursue further studies. Unfortunately, many graduates have been denied the opportunity of taking the appropriate step because of the delay in obtaining the Originals of their Certificates. Graduates from most Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics are made to wait endlessly before being issued with Certificates, just as some have lost their lives to road crashes in the process of running endlessly to obtain their Certificates.

In virtually all the Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics, their Graduation Clearance Process involves obtaining signatures from their Advisor/Supervisor, the Registrar, the Librarian, the Bursar, the Head of Health/School Clinic, etc. And this process often times take several weeks, or even months in some schools, to complete. Graduating students are made to carry a paper form to multiple locations around the campus just to obtain a signature from each involved person/authority. In some schools, when the student obtained a signature, he is expected to a physical copy of the form to serve as a backup in the event that the original was lost. That means, a graduating student would have to start this so-called Clearance process weeks or months in advance in order to graduate on time.

We really do not understand what type of clearance these higher institutions still need from their graduating students? First of all, the said graduating students are duly registered and admitted by the various higher institutions, and having gone through the School (be it a four- or five-year Course), and paid for their final examinations’ tuitions, what type of clearance are they still looking for again? The word ‘CLEARANCE,’ after one has successfully completed his/her final exam in any of the Nigerian Universities or Polytechnics, should be seen as an outdated practice, especially in this day and age of modern information technology. Risking the lives of newly graduated students of the Nigerian higher institutions to travel to their various schools in the name of carrying out a so-called ‘clearance exercise’, is simply uncivilized. This was not the case in the past, in these same Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics. During our years in the higher institution, graduating students are not made to go through this rigorous process of clearance, as the Schools already have your records in the system from the moment you are admitted. So, you do not need to do any other type of clearance before you are qualified to graduate. But what Nigerian higher institutions today in the name of Clearance, obviously shows that they do not have ‘digitalized records’ of their students? If that is the case, then it is truly a shame for the image of the nation’s education sector, especially in this modern era. As such, Nigerian higher institutions urgently need to update their activities with the digital world.

The word ‘CLEARANCE’ is outdated, and should not be heard of and practiced the way they are doing it now in our higher institutions. Nigerian higher institutions should be digitalized and automate any form of ‘paper work’, which puts at risk – the lives of newly graduating students who have to travel to carry out such clearance, and it also creates room for all sort of corrupt practices to take place within Campuses. Nigerian higher institutions should have the Educational, tuition fees, performance and Bio-data Records of every student from the onset of his/her being admitted into the school, which they can easily retrieve and cross check to carry out their follow-up and whatever Clearance exercise they need at any time, without making the graduating students go through s stressful process. As far as we can tell, there is no University/College or higher institution that still does the so-called ‘clearance’ in the Europe/America, like we still do in Nigeria. Can’t we develop ourselves and do things like a civilized society that is moving with the changes in global times? Is it everything that the Whiteman will have to do for us?

There is need for the relevant Federal Government Authorities, Nigerian Lawmakers and the Federal Ministry of Education, to put a stop to this so-called ‘Clearance practice’ in Nigerian higher institutions. The schools should be compelled to adopt modern automated ways of handling this clearance process. This administrative incompetence by Nigerian higher institutions in the management of graduating students should not be encouraged or left the way it is being practiced currently.

Every Nigerian higher institution in the country, be it Federal, State or Private institutions, should be made to adopt a new process of clearance, that would only require graduating students filling out a form on their school’s website, which they can do from any location. It should be done in such a way that, once the students enter their students’ identifications, much of the information in the online form is automatically pre-populated from the existing student information records in the School’s system. Once submitted, the form is routed first to the School Financial Department office and then to the student Accounts Office, as well all the other Offices/Departments concerned – for review and signatures/approval. If a reviewer, for instance is taking too much time to complete a task, the system should be done in such a way that it sends the user a reminder email. If, at any step along the way, the form is rejected, the student should be notified by email to contact the School’s Office concerned and provide additional information if necessary. And so on, should the communication between the graduating student and his/her institution go till the process ends. This is the standard practice across the globe in most higher institutions. With this process, it eliminates all the issues we have highlighted above within the current way Nigerian higher institutions are doing their so-called clearance.

We ask that this subject issue should be given the needed attention as rightly advised.

Zik Gbemre.

National Coordinator

Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)