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Before some readers label me as hater of

Covenant
Un...Read the full article.

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Nice talk. Convenant University is notorious for such dictatorial action.

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Over 100 students expelled for not bringing 1 book to assembly, in a tertiary educational institution.

Na real war.

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The Sun's sensational story on the above is not totally correct. You should have gone to the University to confirm the facts. As things are, you have as usual swallowed the Sun's story hook, line and sinker. I have a ward in that School. When he called me this afternoon, I asked him to confirm the story. The figure he gave me is quite different from that published in the Sun. Covenant University is not a ruse. Students who go there should learn to abide by the rules and regulations governing their admissions. If they can't take the heat, they should leave and enrol in our decayed and decaying so called ivory towers.

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=Bannister;4295046639>The Sun's sensational story on the above is not totally correct. You should have gone to the University to confirm the facts. As things are, you have as usual swallowed the Sun's story hook, line and sinker. I have a ward in that School. When he called me this afternoon, I asked him to confirm the story. The figure he gave me is quite different from that published in the Sun. Covenant University is not a ruse. Students who go there should learn to abide by the rules and regulations governing their admissions. If they can't take the heat, they should leave and enrol in our decayed and decaying so called ivory towers.

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l am not sure if you read all that the writer wrote or else, how can you "miss" that part that says "they got in touch with the PRO on Phone, he said he would call back to give facts, never did and subsequently did not pick his call"? What other proof do you need to prove that the writer made good attempts to check the story?

Generally speaking, Whether it was one student that was rusticated/expelled or a hundred, it does not matter. We are talking about the "life" of human beings, young and impressionable ones, we are talking about "killing" a young man/womans dream, ......just because he did not carry Bible, as if that is the only guarantee to enter heaven?

Should the expelled students now turn to armed robbery?
As a religious school, what do these Universities make of the admonition that "God does not want the sinner TO PERISH but to repent an inherit God's kingdom? If God were to be so brutal with us humans, how many of us will remain or can these University administrators be more pious than God himself?

Absolute Power they say, corrupts absolutely.
Does carying Bible stop people from looting the
treasury or did we not hear of that Redeem Church Pastor who was a top-shot in the government Agency and stole into the billions? He was only exposed by his sudden death in an air-mishap while his two wives where quarreling on how to share the booty!

This is an arrant show of abuse of power and to imply that such students should withdraw from the school is very sad.
Let me remind you that if not in a religious jungle like Nigeria where Dog eats Dog, such Universities are supposed to cater for the children of the poor-members of the church first, as a catchment area and the public in general, since its from their "contributions and 10%" that the school was built but we both know that its been deliberately priced out of their reach.
And they are confined, as you said, to the decaying Public schools, even while the Pastors scream themselves hoarse every church service, for their money :D

We need laws, enforceable laws, to regulate these Private Universities, for minimum standards and Public interests. The Parents should just seek court action, as a class suit.

Agreed, we have a camatose and upside-down government, we are lead by people who can not even lead themselves otherwise, Private University should not be the norm but what do you expect......When an Obasanjo can rule Nigeria for Eight years and he "worked hard enough" to build himself a University and a Library while the Public, government owned ones are decaying.........

Either Man or God, will surely judge this country at the appropriate time.

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Hello Bannister,

In as much as I do not begrudge anyone sending his children to private universities in Nigeria, if that is a preferred choice, I do take strong exception to referring to Nigerian public universities as 'decayed and decaying so called Ivory tower' by you. From personal experience the public universities have produced and still producing students that stand out from others particularly when they come to Europe/ America for their post graduate studies. I do testify to that.

Whereas their counter part from private universities in Nigeria often find it difficult to adapt, please do not misunderstand me I cannot fault their academic abilities or training. I am making reference to exposure and the ability to withstand stress and rigour and be able to tolerate others. For instance how will a 'boy' that graduated from covenant be able to cope with a gay as lecturer or a lesbian as colleague!, in a postgraduate class in Europe or America. By virtue of the boy's training I doubt if he would be able to cope with the emotional and cultural shock that abundantly await him in Europe, having been trained and treated like a boy that is incapable of making his choice during his stay in the Nigerian private university. I remember the other time I took my bible to a P.G class in U.K, everyone in the class was looking at me like a man out of this world!

My fear is that these children when they graduate from these restrictions and rules, may not be able to cope in the outside world. The universities are suppose to be adult communities, not anymore. University training should not be limited to academic and moral training, unfortunately that is what the Nigerian private universities do(with the exception of a few). In these private universities talking to a lady in an isolated place in the evening will be punished with expulsion, in Babcock University,the punishment for reading a book on Saturday (Sabbath day) is suspension and expulsion on second occurrence!

In my personal view, this is over protection and the students are being deprived of the opportunity to learn through trial and error while in the university. A lot of them will pay heavily when they get to the outside world.

Only1integrity.

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The Bible is a book I respect, worship & adore but at times I have even failed to take it to Church which is a shame but I doubt the Good Lord would throw me out of the Church. After all I am a human being & a sinner. A lot of these Pentecostal Churches & their leaders have become the latter day Pharisees & Sadducee's. Full of Righteousness & Laws but empty of Love & Compassion.
If a so called University treats her students who pay exorbitant fees all in the name of getting the best available education in Nigeria like primary school pupils then it should be shut down.

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I honestly have been thinking about how this private universities are run considerring mixing religion with Academics.

I remembered my days in the University, when you have to burn your Candles to ensure that you submit one assignment or the other. Get ready for some unannounced tests etc. It was a real stress going through the system. You graduate having passed through the school and the school passing through. You meet people of different religion, cultures, fate, disposition and you have to learn to cope with them all.

All these experience and more builds the man in you and get you ready for the battle ahead. But for these private universities to be run like a Kindergarten is rediculous. I never ever heard of coming to the Assembly for morning devotion, or bringing your bible to the class. As important as religion is, it is an individual thing. How do students trained in a way to believe that their religion is the basis for education cope when they meet people of other religions or when they travel abroad for further education and are faced with a different system entirely.

I sincerely feel these universities need to be regulated, let science student learn sciences, engineering students concentrate on engineering, Art learn Art and be given the freedom to be who they want to be.

University is a place for Adult learning, not just where people are groomed or doctored to just a single life style.

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=Walking;4295046733>I honestly have been thinking about how this private universities are run considerring mixing religion with Academics.

I remembered my days in the University, when you have to burn your Candles to ensure that you submit one assignment or the other. Get ready for some unannounced tests etc. It was a real stress going through the system. You graduate having passed through the school and the school passing through. You meet people of different religion, cultures, fate, disposition and you have to learn to cope with them all.

All these experience and more builds the man in you and get you ready for the battle ahead. But for these private universities to be run like a Kindergarten is rediculous. I never ever heard of coming to the Assembly for morning devotion, or bringing your bible to the class. As important as religion is, it is an individual thing. How do students trained in a way to believe that their religion is the basis for education cope when they meet people of other religions or when they travel abroad for further education and are faced with a different system entirely.

I sincerely feel these universities need to be regulated, let science student learn sciences, engineering students concentrate on engineering, Art learn Art and be given the freedom to be who they want to be.

University is a place for Adult learning, not just where people are groomed or doctored to just a single life style.

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My sentiments exactly on the issue. Mixing religion with education in the name of producing 'superior beings' is dangerous and counter-productive. I agree that the students from these 'religious Universities' cannot cope with life outside the immediate environment of their schools and you can see it in the way they look down on others, even fellow Christians. The emphasis on religion is misleading these impressionable youngsters. I remember a group in my university days called 'Wailing Wailers'. They go to the sports complex in the evenings to 'ban' the spirit of failure and the devil while we the 'non-believers' go to class to study hard to pass our exams. Needless to say, the 'Wailers always invariably failed the examinations and most ended up spending an average of 8 years for courses that should normally take 4.

If Convenant is a Bible school, then it should be so branded and concentrate on Theology. the public schools are in the mess they are presently because we are all keeping quiet while those who should advocate for improvement (Christian and Islamic religious leaders) are busy establishing their own private universities. I remember that Obasanjo strengthened The Bells during his tenure at Aso Rock while starving the Federal Universities of funds. It was within this period that Atikus' 'American' University in Yola expanded. What an irony! People we 'elect' into office to save the educational system were the ones who deliberately killed the public schools so that their private universities may look better.

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Until I am confronted with hard facts a la empirical evidence I refuse to accept the assertion that students trained in our private universities will not cope with the rigours/demands of academic work in foreign universities. This is a complete fallacy. I am a public servant with two children currently pursuing their respective academic programmes in two of our universities ( one private and the other public). I have never doubted the academic prowess of lecturers in our public universities but if the truth must be told, our public tertiary institutions are living in their past glory. Libraries without current text books and journals, workshops without eqipment and tools and laboratories without chemicals, etc. The list goes on and on. Parents who send their kids to these private universities know exactly what they want. These parents are not neccesarily rich but just as many parents in the past toiled,and accepted loans to send their kids to universities and polytechnics abroad, the present generation of parents are doing exactly the same. I'll rather prefer that my child reads the bible than carry axes and guns to send his/her colleague to an early grave in the name of cult activities. It is a matter of choice. Covenant University has rules and regulations. These were made known to students and their parents right at inception. Those who fall foul of these rules and regulations only have themselves to blame. Our newspapers are awashed with stories of students expelled for one misdeamenour or the other in our tertiary academic institutions. The University of Abuja recently expelled many students, some in their final year, for being on the wrong side of its rules and regulations (my child is there). I have not seen sensational headlines in our dailies on this. None of the private universities is operating without a licence nor accreditation from the regulatory body (the NUC). Let Covenant University be.