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FRIDAY
DISCOURSE WITH DR. ALIYU TILDE For the Eyes of NECO Registrar I
was on a visit to Sokoto when a friend informed me of the admission
fraud taking place in some Federal Government Colleges. He narrated to
me what happened to his daughter whom he felt has been cheated by
unscrupulous parents in When
the admission results came out, Mustapha visited the school to find
out whether his daughter is listed among the princesses.
Unfortunately, she was not and, naturally, he was covered with
sadness. His dream – and that of his daughter – of pursuing an
academic career in the best girls’ college in the country has been
shattered. She will not be a princess. Perhaps,
he implied, the girl did not perform very well. After all, Queen’s
college is very competitive. So he headed home. But before he could
leave the premises of the school, the voice of curiosity called and
counselled: “Return to the board and find out who were those more
beautiful indigenes of Sokoto that blocked the chance of his daughter
and what actually were their measurements.” It was there that his
sadness turned into the anger that remains to date. He is busy since
that day going into every relevant office and dropping his infuriating
findings. First
of all, he found that the only one girl was admitted from Sokoto
state, instead of two. Aha, marginalisation, he cried. He
recalled that the policy on unity schools allocates two candidates to
every state in every federal government college outside its
boundaries. Here, even on this basis, Mustapha reasoned, there is a
room for the accommodation of his daughter in the prestigious school. The
second and most surprising observation was the name of the only girl
admitted from Sokoto on quota – Mabudu Modinat – with registration
number 154776BB who attended In
addition, if Modinat had schooled at Sokoto there would have been a
probability of her being an indigene of Modinat
could be an isolated case, Mustapha reflected with caution. But
pressed further by the ‘devil’ of curiosity, he tried to see if
his conclusion on the fraudulent candidature of Modinat can be
confirmed by the situation in other states. He went through the
admissions given to candidates of other states, especially those from
the North. Here, the fraud became clear. The coincidence, even if
there was any, requires the probability of the Big Bang to happen.
‘Modinat’ was a universal phenomenon on the list pasted at
Queen’s college. What applied to Sokoto also applied to many states
of the far North. Mustapha
quickly copied his findings and believing that he has discovered a
fraud in an era when the government is fighting fraudulent practices
in all their manifestations he printed them in a table and started
circulating the copies to all the states concerned through their
liaison offices in So
far, as at when we met in Sokoto a fortnight ago, nothing has come out
of the complaint from any government in the North. The issue is
perhaps moving from one desk to another before finally it reaches the
Commissioner of Education of each state who will then write a memo to
His Excellency who will in turn direct the Honorable Commissioner on
what to do. That blessing of His Excellency will take several months
to get, if it ever comes on matters like this. Finally from the
commissioner downwards, a couple of years will be needed before any
action is taken. Now
I feel we do not need to wait. I can now understand why my son, Abba,
could not get admission into King’s College Lagos. But that is not
the issue here. What is at stake is Justice. In the remaining
paragraphs, I have presented my contribution as to how the fraud could
be avoided and I sincerely hope that the authorities concerned, namely
NECO, Federal Ministry of Education, all the First,
let us note that neither the Federal Ministry of Education nor NECO
has any fault in this. Objectively, we must dissociate them from any
blame. In fact NECO deserves our commendation in that it has
computerised the admissions into Federal Government Colleges. That is
remarkable, and the computerisation, in spite of its limitations, must
remain. It is the surest road to justice. The
situation is brought about by the fraudulent intent and behaviour of
parents who know that the computer can never detect, as the human mind
would do, any fraud when a parent filling the form for his child
decides to fill the wrong state code with the intention of stealing
the quota of that state. We understand that stakes are high but
parents wishing a better tomorrow for Once
the computer is fed with that wrong information, like Ejiegbu Ngozi
(Sokoto), Onitiju Afolarera (Kebbi), Fagbuyi Seun (Katsina), Kusuji
Folashade (Jigawa), Onuogu Nkechi (Adamawa), Afun Anu Oluwapo (Yobe)
and Badejo Omoshalewa (Nasarawa), there is nothing it can do but sort
them out as valid indigenes of the respective states indicated. So
after both the first and second tests, it will go ahead to award them
admissions into schools of their choice based on quota and other
criteria like merit and environment. Obviously, NECO will go ahead,
especially under pressure to release the results from the public, to
issue admission letters as sorted out by the computer. This is the
height of transparency. The fault of the computer is that it is not a
Nigerian. NECO
can do very little than the computer if we consider that there are
hundreds of thousands of candidates applying to sit for the exams.
Using the computer also discounts the prejudices of the human factor.
Thus, given the quantum of work and the pervasive degree of
nepotism among Nigerians, using the computer to collate results and
award admissions remains imperative. Having
established the need to use the computer and having also established
its inability to detecting fraud of the kind in question, we must move
to the manual domain to find a solution to the problem. Fraudulent
parents in One,
the duty to check the state of origin of the admitted students lies
with the schools. When a candidate with the name Onuogu Nkechi arrives
at Queen’s College to register, normally she will be required
according to the requirements of NECO to present an indigene
certificate of a local government in the So
we need an additional check point on our road to justice. A second
suggestion is that NECO, I will advise, should take the extra pain and
cost of sorting out and printing all admissions given to each state
nationwide. It will then examine every admission, since the admitted
candidates are very much fewer than the candidates that applied. I
believe it will be in a position to raise many questions regarding the
admissions. For example, it would have found out that half of the
fraudulent practice at Queen’s College came from a school called Thirdly,
NECO should trek the extra mile to send the printout of the sorted
list to every Ministry of Education such that it is left to the state
to pursue its case or not whenever it discovers a foul play is
committed against it. It will raise the case with NECO and demand a
reinstatement of its right. I believe NECO will be very willing to
oblige. This option alone would have solved the problem if it were not
for the ineptitude of our state Ministries of Education. The
best option lies in the combination of the three: getting schools use
their sixth sense, where they have one; NECO scanning the results with
the intention to fish out the fraud itself and advise the schools to
be on the alert; and NECO, still, sending the printout to states who
we implore should take particular and immediate interest in
ascertaining the indigeneship of every candidate bearing their names. I
know the Registrar of NECO to be among the few Nigerians in position
of authority today who hate fraud to the core, just like his JAMB
counterpart. I am sure when this article reaches NECO Registrar, he
will, I predict, set up a committee to investigate the matter and he
will be the first to order the dismissal of all candidates who have
gained admission through this fraudulent manner in the past and
present. I hope the composition of this committee will not be limited
to NECO officials alone. There is the need for concerned people like
Mal. Mustapha Ibrahim to participate in the exercise. While
I invest my hope in the Registrar, I implore on those of us concerned
to grant him the time to investigate the matter accordingly. On our
part, we assure him of our indomitable defence against the assault
ballistics of the parents affected. Mr. Registrar, you remain our only
hope, now and in the future.
Admission
of Northern States candidates into Queen’s College – Yaba Lagos
(2004/2005 session) based on quota system.
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