Michael Adikwu, Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, says the university faced a lot of difficulties in getting accreditation of some of its courses because it took off in a primary school in Gwagwalada in 1990 after its establishment in 1988.

“You should understand that this university started in a primary school. Most of the facilities we had on the mini campus were based on primary-school structures; the spaces were meant for headmistress and primary school teachers,” Adikwu said at the main campus of the university on Tuesday.

“When I came here, only Agricultural Science had full accreditation. From 2005, there was no accreditation in this university. But now, among the 53 courses that we run in this university, 50 have accreditation.”

Adikwu was appointed Vice Chancellor of the university in July 2014 after James Adelabu left at the end of his five year tenure.

But the university witnessed its lowest moments under him, when, in 2012, the Federal Government suspended four disciplines – Agriculture, Engineering, Health Science and Veterinary Medicine – due to substandard facilities, poor labs and accreditation problems.

Speaking at a press conference held after the university graduated its first set of medical students who had been studying for the past 12 years due to the suspension and re-accreditation of their course by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) last Saturday, the Vice Chancellor disclosed that only Political Science still had a serious challenge with accreditation now.

He stated that all the other courses suspended alongside Medicine had all been fully accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other regulatory agencies such as the Council for the Regulation of Engineering In Nigeria (COREN).

While speaking earlier, Sani Maikudi, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the university, said the College of Health Science of the university had, since inception in 2005/2006, faced serious challenges resulting from the non-accreditation of the medical courses and three others.

He expressed optimism that the graduation of 18 medical students on Saturday had helped the university put all its bad experiences behind.

“You may wish to know that courses in Engineering, Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture have now been fully accredited and have been graduating students,” he said.