Just give me my money 🫴
Lawsuits, land battles and academic overachievers.
What's up guyyyy?
My brain's still fuzzy from all the Grey's anatomy episodes I've watched this week, that series is toxic mehn 😭 (somebody tell me to read for my upcoming exams 🤲😪)
If Nigerian universities were a TV series, this week’s episode would have been titled “Consequences, Confusion, and People That Are Clearly Smarter Than the Rest of Us.”
UNICAL
Let’s start in Calabar, where the University of Calabar (UNICAL) just learned that accreditation is not something you can treat like optional course registration.
A Federal High Court in Calabar ordered the university to pay ₦55 million in damages to eight engineering students, now popularly known online as the “UNICAL 8.”
These students were admitted into an engineering programme that, unfortunately, did not have accreditation from the National Universities Commission (NUC) or COREN.
Which means the students spent years studying engineering only to later discover that the programme technically did not exist in the eyes of the regulators.
Some of them had to repeat levels, while entire departments were eventually discontinued.
The court didn’t mince words either, describing the university’s actions as “fraudulent, reckless and deceitful.”
So now UNICAL owes the students ₦55 million, and campuses across the country have suddenly developed a new fear:
“Please let my department actually be accredited.”
FUTMINNA
Meanwhile in Minna, the drama around FUTMinna’s Bosso Campus refuses to rest.
The Niger State Government reportedly wants to convert the Bosso Campus into a teaching hospital for Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University in Lapai.
FUTMinna, however, says hold on… the Federal Government bought that land in 1983, it wasn’t borrowed and it certainly wasn’t on loan.
Since the news broke, the situation has turned into a full campus resistance movement.
Students and lecturers have protested, the Students’ Union Government and NANS rejected the proposal, and alumni have already sent petitions to the presidency.
For now, students are watching the situation like a suspense movie, because nobody is entirely sure how a whole university campus just casually entered real estate negotiations.
While some campuses are dealing with lawsuits and land battles, others are producing people who are clearly operating on a different academic operating system.
UNILAG
UNILAG lecturers have are on an indefinite strike over the 'amputation’ of their January and February salaries.
OAU
An Obafemi Awolowo University dental graduate, Olaore Stephen, went viral after announcing on X that he had finally passed his final professional exams.
His tweet was simple:
“I have satisfied my examiners.”
Then he dropped his academic résumé like it was a mic drop.
200 Level: Distinction in Biochemistry
300 Level: Another distinction
400 Level: Got married (apparently multitasking)
500 & 600 Level: Multiple distinctions across dental courses
Students across Nigeria looked at that timeline and quietly began reassessing their life choices.
UNIPORT
Not to be outdone, University of Port Harcourt also produced a certified academic overachiever this week.
Nwabundo Queensley Onyinyechukwu, a medical student from UNIPORT, announced on X that she officially became a doctor on March 10, 2026 following her induction ceremony.
But becoming a doctor wasn’t the only headline.
During her medical training, she also walked away with:
Best Graduating Student in Pathology
Best Graduating Student in Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Best Graduating Student in Surgery
Overall Best Graduating Medical Student – University of Port Harcourt
In other words, while the rest of us were celebrating passing anatomy, she was collecting departments like Pokémon badges.
Her post quickly spread across Nigerian student timelines and blogs, with many pointing out the obvious truth: medical school in Nigeria is already hard enough , winning it entirely is another level of madness.
That’s campus life this week!
Let's recap,
One university paying ₦55 million for an unaccredited programme,
another fighting to keep its campus land,
and two students reminding everyone that academic excellence still exists somewhere in this country.
Nigerian campuses remain the most unpredictable reality show in the country.
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Catch up with previous publications on What's Up by 10.8.8 Africa.
Until next gist,
Gbemi from 10.8.8 Africa ✨