The Islamic human rights group, Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has called on the Nigeria Police Force to parade the “professional examination writers” said to have been arrested during the last Joint Admissions Matriculations Board, JAMB, examination.
JAMB had claimed that over 100 of such persons were arrested.
In a statement issued by the founder and director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, there was need to reveal the identities of the alleged professional examination writers.
That, MURIC, said would serve as a lesson to others.
His words: “The arrest of these professional examination writers is an eye-opener. It confirms what we have been saying for several years. The phenomenon of the lazy Nigerian youth is no longer a myth. Many people wanted to crucify President Muhammadu Buhari when he used that phrase some months ago. But we can all see now.
“Whereas Nigeria is blessed with many hardworking youngsters, there exists many black sheep who tarnish the image of the industrious ones. We call on the security agencies to publicly parade those caught in order to serve as deterrent to others. They must not be treated with kid gloves.
“Their names and faces must be exposed to friends and family members. They must be paraded as the bad eggs in society. We all know that societal norms and values have long broken down but we never knew that things had degenerated to this level. It is such a big shame.”
Stressing that the action of the “examination writers” contradicted the “well-known African sense of dignity,” the MURIC boss said the owner of the Lagos CBT centre who allowed his two biological sons to impersonate other candidates was a disgrace to all Nigerian parents.
He said his conduct confirmed the breakdown in family norms and values in the Nigerian society.
“This is a father training his own sons to fill up Nigerian universities with unqualified students. Some of those ‘assisted’ by them will graduate as ‘medical doctors’ who will become harbingers of death to hundreds of innocent patients simply because they were never really qualified to read Medicine in the first place.
“It is more painful when we realise that these people have been doing it for years and getting away with it. In essence, we are saying that our universities are filled with unqualified undergraduates while thousands of employees brandish university degrees which they cannot defend,” he added.
He blamed the federal and state governments for failure to meet global best standards in terms of funding of the education sector.
According to him, only one or two states made the education sector a priority.
He said the effect of the failure of government had been a colossal loss in qualitative education.
Said he: “Instances of this dwindling performance can be found in the results published by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in past years. Only 28.58 per cent of the candidates obtained credit passes in five subjects including English Language and General Mathematics in the WASSCE examination of year 2015. 38.58 per cent passed the subjects in 2016 while the percentage fell to 26.01 per cent in 2017.
“Things got so bad that an unnamed Nigerian who called himself a “graduate” posted a highly embarrassing message on facebook in 2018 in which he said, ‘It’s with deeps sence nd humility to told public, friends and family that… I had been collected my result yesterday 30/04/2018 around 2.00 pm with the overall of 3.44 CGPA. I’m now a graduate’. How he made this grade point remains a mystery but at least he has succeeded in exposing the rot in the system.
“Only three Nigerian universities were included in the 2019 Times Higher Education World University Rankings out of 1,250 tertiary institutions around the globe. Only one (the University of Ibadan) was in the 2018 list and it was ranked number 801 out of 1,000 universities. The same university was the only one included among the 800 best universities in the world in 2016 and its position was 601. No single Nigerian university made the 2015 list released by the Centre for World University Rankings. The United States alone had eight among the top ten.
“This generally poor performance resulted in parents’ loss of confidence in the Nigerian education system and those who can afford it sought admission for their children outside the shores of this country. It also informed their desire for cutting corners particularly by parents who are thin in integrity but fat in indecency.”
The MURIC founder also commended JAMB’s chief executive, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, for sanitizing the system.
“JAMB is making waves because a no-nonsense man is at the helm of affairs,” he declared.
