Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The South-east Senate Caucus has expressed worry over what it described as a ‘curious and highly suspicious’ JAMB examination glitch in some centres in Lagos State and the whole of South-east in the last exam circle.

They blamed it on “injecting hateful politics and narrow parochial considerations in both policy enunciation and its implementations”.

In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by its Chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA, Abia South), the caucus said it would be disheartening and hopes not to contemplate such conspiracy theory “that there is a narrow agenda being pursued to deliberately shortchange and harm the future of our children”.
Though the caucus, after a careful assessment of the reports of the ugly incident, noted with cautious optimism the efforts being made to mitigate the near disaster, particularly the rescheduling of the examination, it, however, warned that a future recurrence would be unacceptable.

South-east senators, he added, welcomed the timely acceptance of fault as expressed through the open declaration of regrets and tearful apology by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) management, particularly its registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede.

According to Senator Abaribe, the South-east lawmakers warned that such a display of penitence in public would not be an effort to mask a future sinister agenda aimed at harming the educational advancement of children of the South-east region.

Abaribe said: “The so-called glitch, as curious and suspicious as it was, is enough to erode confidence and dangerously lower national pride among the future generation.

“The relevant national education drivers must recognise the inherent danger of injecting hateful politics and narrow parochial considerations in both policy enunciation and its implementations.

“That the glitch happened in the whole of South-east raises pertinent questions that must be answered by JAMB to assuage the growing frustrations and fears among the people of the region, particularly the children who are directly at the receiving end. We must pursue a Nigerian agenda and not a narrow one that will ultimately injure national unity.

“Education remains one of the most important bedrocks of any society’s advancement. It is one major index of development in every facet of life that can never be faulted. Education is a major pivot that triggers national development. Every child is entitled to it; therefore, we must not play roulette with it,” he explained.

He said that the South-east Senate Caucus was on alert and under pressure and demanded firm assurance from JAMB and other relevant national educational policy drivers that there would never be a recurrence of such a scandalous glitch in the future.