Fear Grips Nigerian Professor, Speaks On Student’s Suicide ‘Over Repeated Failure’
A senior lecturer at the Ebonyi State University, Ebonyi State, Prof A U. Enyi, has reacted to the allegation of his involvement in the suicide of one of his students, Favour Ugwuka.
Ibom Focus had reported how Ugwuka, a final-year student of English at Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, committed suicide.
The undergraduate’s death came a few days after she complained bitterly about how a lecturer repeatedly failed her without any “justifiable explanation”.
In a viral audio, the deceased was heard saying the lecturer kept failing her despite spending one extra year.
She said she attended lectures and tried her best to pass the course during her extra year but the lecturer still failed her.
She said, “I am tired of this school, is it because I no be indigene or know anybody for here? Because what is the meaning of this? After paying N130,000 for extra year, make I come pay another one because why will Dr Enyi fail me? For what? After attending classes.
“How will one person be the only person to fail me? Out of how many lecturers that do not even know my face. From year one till today, how will you be the only one?”
In another video seen online, the mother of the deceased took her daughter’s corpse to the campus and also the lecturer for allegedly making her daughter commit suicide.
Giving his side of the story, the lecturer said, “I’m Prof A U. Enyi of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. It is unfortunate, it is quite unfortunate that the girl ended the way she did. I was shocked when I heard the news.
“It is not true that her death is related to an academic issue, I don’t see how somebody who was not victimised, someone who failed an exam would decide to take her own life. So, the first question one should ask in this circumstance should be, was she victimised?
“And of course, you know that she may not have been the only person who wrote the exam and some [other] people may have failed also, so it is not true and, really that was my first reaction. How could she have decided to take her own life, that is if she took her life?
“How could she have decided to take her own life when she was not victimised in the exam?”
He added, “Yes, I got to know about this student in February 2024 after we had uploaded our second-semester results. The results were already approved by the school because before we uploaded results so that students could have access to the results, the school management would have approved the results.
“So the mother called me one night, she said that I was witch-hunting her daughter, that how could her daughter have passed all other courses only to fail my course?
“And when I tried to explain to her the procedure of ascertaining such an accusation, she refused to listen then I had no choice but to disconnect the call.
“And I didn’t dwell further on it because the university has a process for handling such matters. According to the university rules, the examination does not belong to the lecturer, we had submitted the results, the student scripts, the questions, and the marking scheme, so all these are the property of the university and they are all verifiable.
“So, if anyone feels aggrieved, the process of recalling the papers is there. And what such an aggrieved person needs to do is not threaten my life, telling me that she is from Nsukka and that I will be dealt with.”
