Unpaid Fees Between WAEC and State Govt

The reported failure of state governments to pay the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, the required May/June 2015 registration fees for candidates from their states shows the lack of seriousness of the concerned governors. Their excuse that the revenue accruing to the states has dwindled is untenable. If the governors could not sustain the payment just few years after they commenced the scheme, it shows that they were hypocritical about it ab initio and that they only desired to make the payment a mere campaign slogan. This is sad and it is high time our governors shunned making fake promises to people, especially during political campaigns just to win their votes. The governors should see the payment as people’s right and not privilege. After all, parents were paying the fees before their intervention, even if through thick and thin.

Now WAEC is planning to withhold the results of candidates whose state governments have failed to pay their registration fees. This is unsettling as it portends a grave danger for the future of our aspiring youths whose academic pursuit in tertiary institutions will be imperiled.  Yet it will be rash to discountenance the scary WAEC’s plan and dismiss it by a wave of the hand as empty.  If WAEC should execute the plan, which is by all means justifiable, it means that almost the 600,000 affected candidates will not be able to secure admission to institutions of higher learning in the next academic session. This will not be happening because the candidates failed their WAEC or UTME examinations but because their state governors refused to pay WAEC to get their results released.

It calls therefore for appraisal what the concerns of these governors really are. We remind them that their office is a call to service and not for self-aggrandizement. This WAEC payment is the only tangible thing which the poor get from their government. Governors’ children do not attend public schools; even the majority of them study abroad. But the governors get the votes of the poor to be governors. Unfortunately, the poor are the same people they disown immediately after they mount the saddle of leadership.

WAEC had through its Head of National Office, Mr Charles Eguridu, disclosed that the Council was cash-strapped and, therefore, had not been able to settle its supervisors, examiners and other service providers. This happened because about 19 state governments failed to pay their dues running to over N4 billion. Some states are even said to have owed WAEC the 2014 registration fees and their inadmissible reason is that their revenue has dwindled.

It does appear that government is playing kite with the education and future of the Nigerian youths. Rather than blame dwindling revenue on everything, they should priotise their financial engagements and cut down all unnecessary expenses to pave the way for this all-important WAEC payment. This is one programme that can secure not only the future of the candidates but also of the states in terms of security.

We agree with some stakeholders such as the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Parent- Teacher Association (PTA); the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other non-governmental organisations, who are insisting that government must not abdicate their responsibilities at this time just on a flimsy excuse of dwindling state revenue. We recommend that other states of the Federation that are yet to introduce the policy should adopt it for the good of their students.