Top Newspaper investigation-Poor people’s congregration build schools, rich men’s children take over.

THERE is a passage in the Bible that states that not all those that call Jesus Lord will enter into the Kingdom of God. If the information currently at the domain of Nigerian Compass is anything to go by, many will really question the faith professed by Prof. Kayode Makinde, President, Pastor and Vice Chancellor of Babcock University, 

IN ILISAN Remo, Ogun State, sits one of the first private universities to be licensed by the National University Commission (NUC) in Nigeria.

Owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (the Adventist), the school is one of the country's very expensive ivory towers. Recently, the authorities of the institution raised it's tuition fees amid expression of discontent by students and their parents.

Stakeholders now complain aloud that the school has gone far beyond the reach of the average middle class family, including members of the faith who prayed, sacrificed and contributed (and still contribute) their widows’ might towards the establishment of institution.

As it has turned out,
students from poor backgrounds cannot enjoy education in the university even as among those who built it are, petty traders, labouers and day-job men and women. The school is now firmly in the hands of the domain of those who are able to pay the exorbitant fees the school charges for lucrative courses such as Law, Medicines, et al. 

Following the development, Mr Pauliness Mba, a member of the Adventist church in Isialangwa, Aba, Abia State, who said he contributed to the building of the university, is sad. He now holds the belief that the church-owned universities come on board, promising many good things, only turn out the opposite. Mba said that what pains him most is that the authorities of such institution tend not to want to know where the ones who could pay the exorbitant school fees get the money. “But the only thing is for the person to pay or leave the school.”

A member of one of the new generation churches, Dele Ladipo, a trader at 38, Abeokuta Road, Lagos, who also spoke to The Nigerian Compass on Sunday on the development revealed that he became annoyed upon hearing the recent exorbitant charges in Babcock University. He dubbed it an astronomical increment. He frowned that it is coming from “an organisation which claims to be Christian... but has over times forced many of their members into corruption and all sort of dealings so as to pay their children's school fees.”

Ladipo said that Babcock’s recent case also typifies one of the several cases of how the poor is massively working for the rich in the now several “so-called Christian universities in Nigeria.” 

The new fees regime in Babcock, allegedly imposed by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Kayode Makinde (also a pastor) kicks off next session. It requires that students pay as follows per session: Accounting – N1.5million; Nursing – N1million; Law – N2million;

Medicine – N3million; other courses – N860,000. Already majority of the students are kicking, crying that it is outrageous. But being an institution that cannot tolorate students unrest, the best they can do is complain quietly.

The Nigerian Compass on Sunday gathered that the students are scared since then to protest in their school because they could get suspended. Babcock is a Christian university. Ironically, it is cited as a non-profit organisation notwithstanding such huge tuition. So, in strict sense. students do not protest even if they do not understand why they have to pay such huge amounts to school in a Christian institution.

The university was named after an American missionary, David C. Babcock, who it was said, pioneered the early work of Adventist Church in 1914. During his missionary work, the American clergy man was said to have ensured that everything in his mision was done in the spirit of true Christian values.

Mr. Babcock was like the early missionaries of his period who saw qualitative education as the right of members of their congregation and did their best to sow schools with their personal funds while encouraging their congregations and the general public including non Christians to make good use of the opportunities without making merchandise of the institutions.

It was through the efforts of such missionaries that early Nigerians were able to get any form of education as most of them were trained from schools either established by the Roman Catholic or Anglican Church. But today, the reverse is the case, as exemplified by the current case in which there are several big schools owned by churches but none for the masses – not even for members of the congregations that build the schools. Many now think that Karl Marx was correct when he stated that religion is one of the instruments of the ruling class to hold the poor in bondage.

And Babcock is not alone in that wave of 'robbing' the masses in so called church-owned institutions. It is now the trend in the education setor. The highest bidder gets his ward there. A list of other said Christian universities and what they demand of parents baffle.

Investigation by The Nigerian Compass on Sunday reveal that Covenant University owned by Bishop David Oyedepo's (The Living Faith Tabernacle a.k.a. Winners Chapel) is another place of exorbitant tuition.

According to the Chancellor of Covenant University who is also the founder and presiding Bishop of the 50,000 seating capacity church, the Living Faith Tabernacle also known as Winners Chapel, Bishop Oyedepo, ‘‘we are committed to raising a new generation of leaders who will positively impact their nation, the African continent and the world at large.’’ 

It is the aim of the church to create a leading world-class Christian mission university committed to raising a new generation of leaders in all fields of human endeavour. But the Otta, Ogun State-based Covenant University which was described as the liberation commission that God gave to the pastor some years ago has become a ground for children of millioniares, politicial office holder and the rich elite while poor members only gather in the church near bye to pray and sing every Sunday and disperse. For instance, the cheapest course in the institution goes for nothing less than N700,000 which keeps out the children of sincere Nigerian workers as well as sellers of garri, tomatoes and rice, bricklayers, carpenters and even members of the faith who work for the establishment.

Though the church authorities has corrected that the funds used during construction were not offering from the congregation, the general view in the society and in the church is that the institution is a business arm of ministry, built by offerings of the congregation. 

Oyedepo also owns another institution, Landmark University, which is propped to be a platform to assist Nigeria and Africa in its self-discovery so that it may recover her leading position in civilization and education. It was because of this that the school was reportedly cited at Omu-Aran, the home town of the man his worshippers loves to call ‘Papa in the Lord.’

An important admission message which is sent to all freshers states: ‘‘Intending students of Landmark University must fear God, love Him and be unreservedly committed to obeying him.’’ 

General Overseer of Redeemed Christians Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has a gentle mien, same with most of his clerics. But those who have had a close contact with the Redeemers University say the experience is another thing. Particularly, with fees.

The place is not only marked by class struggle but driven by capitalistic spirit. At the Redeemers University, near Ibafo, Ogun State, which is said to have been established in line with the desire of Adeboye's desire to solve the need of the increasing number of Nigerian youths seeking higher education and to arrest the decay in the education system through good training, studying is real money. The cheapest fees are about N500,000 (half a million) per session.

But investigations reveal that the church concedes some discounts to some students. Even with the discount, the fees every student is expected to cough out is still on the very high side considering that even full-time pastors of the church are not even paid well in comparison to other Pentecostal churches.

Inquiries show that the rate at which Nigerian churches venture into the education business is fast as it appears now to be the ambition of every church to establish big schools. Once set up, the fees are jacked up as high as heaven. Even in the realm of nursery, primary and secondary schools churches are active.

For example, few years after the death of Edo State born Pentecostal cleric, the prosperity preacher, Archbishop Benson Idahosa, a university was set up in his name. Called, Benson Idahosa University. The school was purportedly formed in accordance with the wish of the man who before he died went abroad to launder the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s image, and whom his followers claimed first applied to establish a tertiary institution in 1992. The university's promise is to give the students what others will not give them with a slogan that reads: ‘‘Raising leaders who are complete in spirit, mind and body.’’

But the least fees in the school are in the range of N500,000.

The Christ Apostolic Church owns a school named, Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU). It is another university that was built with offerings from church members, comprising the rich and poor. For the project, it was gathered that special offerings were called for at every Sunday service. And members were implored to donate towards the actualisation of the dream of the church to own a university. 

Unlike other universities, the promoters do not link the vision of the universty to the founder of the church whom they name the institution after because the man did not have any serious form of western education before his death. But the mostly poor members of the church contributed in ensuring that the university was built. Yet now most of the members who generously did the donation cannot afford to send their children to the school as fees were pegged, since, at N550,000 per session.

At the ECWA-owned Bingham University, the story is similar. The church which has it's major areas in the north central the upper northern parts of the country named their own university after one of the pioneer of the Sudan Interior Mission. It would have been expected of the little known university to be affordable because it was named after a missionary but it was gathered that the least fees range between N500,000 and N800,000.

Others church-owned institutions include Bowen University, owned and operated by the Nigerian Baptist Convention. The school which is located in Iwo, Osun State, is named after Rev. Thomas Jefferson Bowen, an evangelist of very humble mien. But Bowen University charges between N500,000 and N700,000 per ssession.

There is another church-owned school, the Ajayi Crowder University (ACU), Oyo. It is owned by the Anglican Communion. The university is named after the late Rev. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first African Bishop who also first translated the bible into Yoruba. The school fees there range from N500,000 to N700,000. 

The moans of Mr. Mba capture the mindset of ordinary Nigerian (especially Christians who contributed, even if in coins, to the building of the schools which the wealthy has cornered). They feel robbed. “With all these, if Jesus Christ can be admitted in any of these so-called Christian universities, he will turn down the admission.”

But the truth is that if Jesus is to come to Nigeria today He may not be able to get admission because he was the son of a poor carpenter. 

Worst still many of those members of the churches who could not cough out the amount of money to send their children to the Babcocks, the Redeemers, the Covenant, the Ajayi Crowthers and the Benson Idahosas among others would surely not be able to bribe their way into government-owned or non-church owned private .