The prestigious Africa's most beautiful campus - OAU has been described as one of the tertiary institutions with a very tedious academic system.
Obafemi Awolowo University is a 'great' institution that has over the years developed a culture of glorifying students' failure.
The school is one of the Universities that rarely produce first class students and the reason for this is best known to the lecturers.
Some lecturers in Nigerian Universities like to form bad guys with their students and they do that with first-class arrogance. A lot of students have had encounters with lecturers telling them they will not graduate, the lenient one would promise you a poor very grade irrespective of your performance in the test.
Lecturers like these according to the students abound in OAU and they wear their principle glorifying failure like a badge of honour. Graduating with first-class from Obafemi Awolowo University is one of the most difficult things to achieve in Nigeria.
It is almost impossible because some departments in the University have developed a culture of not producing first class graduates.
While other departments produce graduates year in year out, these departments have proved that first class award is not a for everyone in their domain, not even for the most brilliant students.
Recently, Aarinola Olaiya broke a 28-year-old record in the University as she emerged the first student of Surgery to graduate with distinction in 28 years.
This prompted a conversation based on the conclusion of a Twitter Nigeria influencer that lecturers in a faculty or department that does not produce a first-class student in five years should be fired.
A lot of people reacted to this tweet and called out the department in OAU where it is difficult to make first class.
So, if you are considering admission into these departments, you have to prepare yourself for the culture. The culture of glorifying failure in OAU.
1. English:
The OAU English department has not produced any first class student in more than three decades. According to a student of the department, the last distinction graduate of the department is now an old senior lecturer in the department. And ever since, no student has been dimmed brilliant enough to merit the award.
2. Geology:
If making first class in the study of the earth and its structure was a passport to heaven, no student studying Geology in OAU would make heaven.
It is that certain. So certain that the lecturers usually prepare the minds of the students that they can not get first class no matter how brilliant they are. Geology is one of the most dreaded departments in this university and for decades, no student has been celebrated in the department.
3. Surgery:
In Surgery department, it is a good news that no student has been able to make first class for the past 28 years. This seems to be a department where making first class is seriously frowned at.
Unfortunately, for the department, a student of the department, Aarinola Olaniyan recently broke the jinx and her fellow students could not but celebrate her victory over the department.
4. Political Science:
This department has also failed to produce any first class graduate in so many years. This culture has even made some students to give up on chasing first class because first class has not happened to any student in the past and is not likely to happen in future.
5. Chemistry:
According to a graduate of this department, graduating with distinction in Chemistry is not as terrible as it is in Geology but it is rare to come across a first-class student in the department.
It takes like three to four years to see a first class graduate in this department, it is a serious issue but not as serious as the case in Geology and medical faculty.
However, this is not to say Nigerian Universities should distribute first class award to every Tom Dick and Harry, nevertheless, the students deserve to be rewarded appropriately for their efforts rather than victimizing them because the department or faculty wants to maintain a record of no first class.