JAMB And The Nigerian Child

 I can vividly recall when Tony Blair, a one time Prime Minister of Great Britain was cornered to mention the three cardinal programmes amongst others, which he envisaged for Great Britain as he then won the British Prime Ministership election on the platform of the Labour Party. Blair was too quick to reply Education, Education, and Education. Tony Blair, a motivational speaker and an international commentator, knew what he was talking about. That even when Great Britain was indeed great and had grown to a big brother status and global power bloc, all further developmental strides of the British Empire were function anchored on education, qualitative and quantitative. I must also remember Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late leader of opposition during Nigeria's first republic and “the best President our dear Country Nigeria, never had”. As the Premier of Nigeria's defunct Western Region. Awo, as he was fondly called, was quoted as saying that “the development of any country's economy, was the development of man; and that the development of man, was educating the man”. It still exists.
Recently, our own dear President of the Federal Republic, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, GCFR, was also accosted on the core values and programmes he had for the most populous black nation on earth.
Yar'Adua followed the footsteps of those former leaders and proclaimed Education as the top priority of his administration. Musa Yar'Adua knows that education is the key to Nigeria's development, as he himself is very educated. It tops his seven-point agenda for the nation. I can also attest to the fact that the famed Millennium Development Goal (MDG) programme of the United Nations, and even Africa's NEPAD, all have education in their tables of contents, and as priorities amongst other programmes. Between Nigeria's first republic and now, Nigeria has had various educational visions, regimes, orders and ideologies, all tailored towards the emancipation of the citizenry for the development of our economy. I can still remember when Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo flagged off the famous Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme in the defunct western Region of Nigeria. This world acclaimed educational programme was not only compulsory and free, but also successful. The intention of the UPE was for late Chief Awolowo to lift the Westerners educationally over and above those of other Regions of the country, in total preparation for their relevance in occupying key and sensitive social, political and administrative positions in the public and private sectors of Nigeria's economy. The compulsory nature of that arrangement really enhanced the towered educational awareness and pursuits of those children within the Western Region. Today, because of that singular arrangement, they are still holding forte to key policy making positions in the private and public sectors of our economy, while other zones of this country are still struggling to catch up with the vision the late sage had for Western Nigeria. I can remember that once upon a time, schools in Nigeria were owned by the regions and religious organizations. These regions and the few religious organizations were responsible for the intake of students and the appointments of staff. I can also remember that at a time, Governments, States and Federal took over the administration of these schools, controlling both students' admissions and staff appointments. The Federal Government in particular took over the running and administration of Federal schools purely to allow for admission of students and the appointments of staff to reflect the federal character principle of equality and justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the unity of the nation. This crusade also includes federal government's total control of the admission bodies, e.g. the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is the body solely responsible for the setting of examinations and placements of our children in all Universities in Nigeria. These include Federal, States and Private Universities. Since the commencement of the setting of examinations and placements of Nigerian children in these Universities and other tertiary institutions by JAMB, it has become too hectic and cumbersome for a Nigerian child to gain admission into any of these Universities. Most of our Nigerian children have attempted but to no avail acquiring admission into these Universities time without number. The sprouting of various private Universities within the country is not either helping matters, as these private Universities are predominantly located within areas that are out of the reach of most Nigerian children. Even so, private Universities in Nigeria are excessively expensive, as their fees are not checked and controlled, and this is also off the reach of a common Nigerian child. Rather, majority of the children prefer the States and Federal Universities as their possible bus stops. Because of the crowd in the struggle for their admissions in States and Federal Universities in the country, the population of leftovers continues to soar year in year out in astronomical index. Over some weeks ago, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) chided the nation that out of a little of over one million Nigerian children that entered for and wrote the JMB examinations on 17th May, 2008, only twenty percent, or about two hundred thousand Nigerian children stood the chances of securing admissions into all the States, Federal and Private Universities across the nation, for the next academic year.
Though this information is most unpleasant to the teaming Nigerian children, their parents, guardians and wards alike, the implication of JAMB's breaking news is that over eighty percent or over eight hundred thousand of our children who took the examinations will from now till when the next examinations may take place, roam the streets of this country doing absolutely nothing. This scenario is not amusing but very dangerous, and calls for quick or rapid intervention. I want to reflect on The Seven Points Agenda of the present administration, and most importantly, on the three major up the sleeves and the too-dear-to-the-heart priority of the Yar'Adua's administration Economy, Economy and Economy. I want to reflect on the posture at the inception of the present Federal Administration at which the leadership intended to declare a state of emergency on the power sector. There was a vivid promise that within the first six months, Nigeria's power will throw all importers of generating sets in the country to the labour market. Today, that promise is upside down, inside out. Rather, Nigeria's importers of generating sets have thrown the Power Holdings of our dear nation out of business. Ditto water. Education is the bedrock of our national development and integration. The Nigerian child is the key to our national development. The Nigerian child is the foundation and pillar on which our nation's development can be built, and there can be no effective development if the future of the Nigerian child is not meaningfully invested in and guaranteed.
In Nigeria today, one thing is clear -you either acquire a University education to get a duty to perform either in the private, public or even political sector, or you are nowhere near anything. The craze for university education by a Nigerian child is therefore understood. If the urge to acquire this is in the direct opposite, then the tendency of the Nigerian child getting involved in social and societal vice cannot be ruled out. The present federal administration should not toy with the education sector like the power and water. After all, citizens can afford to do without the nation's power and even water. A typical Nigerian these days do know that it is first and foremost necessary for one to acquire a generating set and sink a borehole, before thinking of erecting a building. But not education. As eighty percent or over eight hundred thousand Nigerian children will not be in our Universities in the Forthcoming School Calendar across the nation, the situation becomes lamentable. JAMB has not told us why such omnibus portion will miss university education for the next academic year. JAMB has not told us either what they intend to do with them, or whether this arrangement is the federal administration's new educational blueprint and policy for the next Academic Calendar. Neither has JAMB told us whether the twenty percent intake is the national percentage allowed for the next school year.
Until answers are reasonably advanced, it will be most absurd for the present Federal Administration to do just the contrary and direct opposite of its seven-point agenda as it affects education. I strongly believe that at the end of the next school year, secondary schools across the nation will certainly churn out over a million Nigerian children. Coupled with the eighty percent or over eight hundred thousand of them presently on ground, the tendency is that about two million of our children will be writing the next JAMB. If this first situation is not sorted out, how feasible would we be able to manage the additional crowd? I understand that there are a total of ninety-nine Universities Federal, states and Private, within the nation at the moment. By simple calculation, and by taking the two hundred thousand students into consideration, it therefore means that the ninety-nine Universities across the nation will have an intake of about two thousand students only for the next academic session. But surely, our universities have the capacities of admitting at least ten thousand such students each, for an academic session, an idea which would have gone a long way to reducing to the minimum, the current situation which our children are going to face.
JAMB has to do something immediately to reverse their stand, and discharge their functions of placing our children in these Universities, as lack of it will surely put enormous psychological trauma on the children, the parents, and by extension, on the nation. After all, Tony Blair is vindicated in his assertion of his cardinal programmes for Great Britain, education. There are thousands of colleges and universities in Britain, as there are hundreds of thousands of British students in these higher institutions out there. Britain knows fully well that for their economy to survive, their children must be in schools. Ditto America, Canada, Japan, even South Africa. And this is really paying-off.
We are told that the GSM handsets we are displaying here as status symbol, are put together and assembled by nursery and primary school students in China, Japan and so on. Currently, no day passes without the Punch, Vanguard or Guardian Newspapers Publishing Admissions into Universities in far away Britain, USA Canada or South Africa. These adverts are for our children out here to pick up these slots for their educational pursuits, but at exceedingly outrageous costs. But these adverts show that these countries Britain, USA, Canada and others alike have already taken the best care of admissions of their children, before extending same to us. I believe that out there, there are abundance of various unfilled admission slots lying idle, and that is why they have decided to reach out to us. The impression created thus far by these daily advertisements in our national newspapers is that, even Britain, yet a world power, is holding on to education as the key to its development vis-à-vis its economy. So also is Canada, Japan, China, South Africa, etc. There can be no greater and complete national interest if the interest of the Nigerian child is not recognized, or is toyed with and is not protected. The salvation of our children is in the hands of the managers of this nation, and it is therefore paramount that the Yar'Adua's administration must take the bull by the horn. We must take a proactive step and upturn the stand of JAMB so as to deliver this nation from the clutches of imminent educational uncertainties staring at this nation. We must take a cue form Britain, from South Africa, from Ghana. Let that soon be now, and let JAMB reverse itself.