The West Africa Students’ Union (WASU) has urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to allow Nigerian Universities to award bachelor degrees on Community Health Science.
Mr Yusuf Abdullahi, the Senior Special Assistant Amb. Dadambi Ferdinand, WASU Speaker, made the appeal in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the accreditation would give community health workers proper recognition in their work organisation.
He emphasised the need for the commission to upgrade the course, saying it had produced over 50,000 educated personnel across the country.
‘‘The victimisation from the delaying accreditation from the students, school managements and professional body of community health officers/workers has resulted into clamouring for the urgent completion of the accreditation of the course.
‘‘The Minimum Academy Standard (MAS) requirement of the course has been met but NUC still failed to accredit the programme in schools.
‘‘We want to appeal to the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, to thoroughly look into our request and also to ensure appropriate actions are taken for the accreditation of the course.’’
The Senior Special Assistant expressed hope that the accreditation would uplift large numbers of Nigerian students who had been yearning for the recognition.
He said he was optimistic that the struggle for the complete accreditation of the degree would yield result through the help of Rasheed.
He also urged the NUC executive secretary, the Minister of Education, National Assembly and the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) to champion the course of the accreditation.
The union had given a 21-day ultimatum on April 15 for NUC to accredit the course or face an open protest to the commission.
WASU is an association of students from 15 ECOWAS states which serves as external force to agitate for student welfare across West Africa with supervision by the ECOWAS Parliament.
The headquarters is in Accra, while its regional office is in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.