A dream turns into a nightmare for dentistry students at UNIJOS. After ten years, the program remains unaccredited and suffers from a faculty shortage, leaving the future of the pioneer class of nine uncertain.
The Jos University Dental Students’ Association (JUDENSA) has raised alarm over what it described as a decade-long ordeal caused by the prolonged delay in completing their academic programme, calling for urgent government intervention to save their careers and mental well-being.
The President of JUDENSA, Johnson Bisani, while speaking during a press conference at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Jos, stated that the students had endured ten years of frustration and emotional trauma due to the University of Jos’s inability to secure full accreditation for its dental programme.
According to Bisani, the programme, which commenced in 2015 as a six-year course, has lingered for ten years without any student graduating and this has left many students psychologically drained and uncertain about their future.
He further emphasised that the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Jos, the only dental school in North Central Nigeria, is critical to improving the region’s poor dentist-to-patient ratio, currently estimated at 1:54,000 against the World Health Organization’s recommended 1:5,000.
Recalling the events that led to the first phase of accreditation, Bisani noted that the students’ peaceful protest on April 25, 2024, drew national attention and prompted the intervention of Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang.
This resulted in the granting of the preclinical phase of accreditation in June 2024.
He, however, expressed dismay that more than a year later, the second phase, the clinical accreditation, remains elusive, contrary to earlier assurances from the University management.
Bisani said despite several engagements, students continue to receive repeated promises without tangible progress, a situation he described as “emotionally degrading and unjust.”
However, the president pleaded with the government and critical stakeholders not to allow the dreams and aspirations of dental students to die, warning that continued neglect could further worsen Nigeria’s healthcare brain drain and diminish confidence in the country’s academic system.
