In the dim light of his hostel room, Nwachukwu David’s phone screen glowed with tears and unanswered calls. He hadn’t eaten in days. “Me and my guys, we don cry tire,” the 5th-year dental student lamented. “Some are considering suicide. I’m holding one of my guys right now because he wan mad.” His trembling voice and string of crying emojis have become symbolic of the mental toll weighing on hundreds of dentistry students at the University of Calabar.
What was supposed to be a journey of rigorous learning, clinical practice, and graduation to become dental surgeons has now become a haunting uncertainty for more than 350 students at the university’s Faculty of Dentistry. The students, who began their programme between 2018 and 2021, are now facing the threat of academic derailment due to a decades-long institutional failure: over-admission without regulatory approval from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
A Systemic Breach Unfolds
At the heart of the crisis lies a violation of protocol. The MDCN granted the university a provisional quota of 10 students per cohort. But in clear breach of that mandate, the university admitted over 100 students each in multiple sessions. The 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 academic years alone saw the admission of 106 and 156 students respectively.
“We were never told that our future was being compromised at the point of admission,” said Benjamin Chidozie, a 5th-year student who shared an issued detailed open letter on behalf of his class. “We were given admission based on merit, we paid our dues, and we stayed loyal to the institution. Now, we are being told to ‘go learn a trade’ because the university over-admitted us?”
The MDCN’s response was swift. On July 8, 2025, the Council withdrew the provisional accreditation, prompting the university to consider transferring students to other dental schools nationwide. The solution, however, has been met with deep resistance.
“We Are Not Expendable”
Students say the plan to scatter them across different institutions after years of intensive study, some spending as many as eight years is not only traumatic but also logistically impossible.
“How can you ask me to uproot everything I’ve built in seven years? Where do I even begin again?” questioned Fortune Kelechi Onu, a 5th-year student who says he has spent over ₦5 million on his education so far. “We are emotionally wrecked. I don’t know what my future holds anymore.”
The issue has sparked mental health concerns. Several students have expressed suicidal ideation, frustration, and exhaustion. “We are supposed to be future doctors, not victims,” another student declared. “Yet we are now stranded, unheard, and betrayed.”
A Legacy of False Promises and Misdirection
Students detail how over the years, they were repeatedly reassured that accreditation challenges would be resolved. From “Exam Levy” payments of ₦30,000 in 2019 to a “Special Training Levy” of ₦40,000 more recently, they were told the funds would be used to meet accreditation standards. Instead, visiting lecturers stopped coming. Equipment remained inadequate. Nothing changed.
In a troubling revelation, students point to the quiet transfer of a top administrator’s daughter to another university presumably to escape the crisis. “Even the people managing the system didn’t believe in it,” said one student bitterly.
The university’s leadership has acknowledged the problem. Speaking on national television, Vice Chancellor Prof. Florence Banku Obi took responsibility. “I inherited the problem,” she said, “but we’re working on it. We’ve engaged the MDCN, and I’m appealing to the Minister of Education for help.”
But for the students, these words have come too late. “We’ve heard this song before,” they say, referencing previous crises that left Pharmacy and Engineering students demoted years back. “It always ends in vague apologies and empty reforms.”
Students’ Demands: A Proposal from Within
Rather than transferring them to other universities, the students have proposed an internal solution: allow willing dental students to switch into the Medicine and Surgery programme within Unical, a transition they say is academically viable since their curricula overlap significantly. The MDCN, they argue, can grant a waiver.
“It is a practical, humane, and academically sound solution,” they wrote. “We are not refusing reform, we are refusing abandonment.”
Yet according to the students, this proposal was dismissed by the Provost, Prof. Ngim E. Ngim, who reportedly scoffed at Dentistry as “Medicine’s junior brother.” “The disdain is unbearable,” one student said.
No Place to Turn
At the time of filing this report, efforts to get official comments from the MDCN, Federal Ministry of Education, or the University of Calabar have been unsuccessful. Students say their emails and messages go unanswered. Some fear victimization for speaking out. “We even had to hide receipts,” one student said. “There’s talk of punishing anyone who speaks.”
As the new academic session looms, over 350 students remain trapped in limbo, emotionally drained, financially exhausted, and professionally stranded.
“This is no longer just a case of administrative oversight,” says Chidozie. “This is institutional betrayal.”
And unless urgent action is taken, the future of hundreds of Nigeria’s aspiring dental professionals risks being buried under a mound of bureaucratic failure.
