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Who really is the pawn in this Education saga?

Here is another article on the ongoing Post Utme cancellation discourse sent to us by a UNN student. Read below and don’t forget to share your thoughts at the end of the post.

Who really is the pawn in this Education saga?

Not until recently the bureaucratic bottleneck in the Nigerian civil service had been a cause of worry to me. How much leaders go on lobbying and seeking out the opinion of stakeholders before implementing any policy in the previous administration was a worry to me, little did I know that with PMB I was in for a shocker. Arbitral change of rules, scrapping of statutorily established bodies and so on and surprisingly too we’re not given the time to digest one before another one come on; ‘FG scraps ….’
I’m Uzor Praise by name by the way, a law undergraduate of the University of Nigeria. I couldn’t help but feel pain when I read an anonymous article on Unn info page. The relative maturity and concise nature of this article written by a law aspirant got me wondering and I came to realize with disdain for our policy makers that In this generation where a great number of university students don’t know their left from their right academically we allow real materials and potentials to waste. I had a similar experience when I wrote my first Jamb before it was turned compulsorily to CBT. After the exam, I had to wait over two weeks and when the results finally came out I had 214. Not only was the score so ‘not-mine’, the breakdown was hilarious. The score was divided among my four subjects 54, 54, 53, 53. After watching my result with pain in my eyes I couldn’t help forcing out a disdainful laughter as I just imagined one disillusioned jamb official doling out marks at will without actually marking because I knew properly my varied strength in different subjects and knew that score line was impossible. I wrote my post ume, made 250 like the other writer and trust UNN they didn’t take a whiff in my direction. I re-wrote and like students say, I smashed and got in with ease. The stress I met in school was something else and connecting with former friends was somewhat problematic and just as post ume was approaching, relationships began to revive on their own, this friend or that wanted to know when UNN’s post ume form would be out. I had turned informant even counsellor until the FG struck. You can imagine my pain. Most of these friends were messed up by Jamb and the post-ume was their only hope. In my opinion since the mess up was general they had a chance to make up in post ume and I had advised thus.
I was the first in my lodge to get the news, ‘FG scraps post and places the general cut off at 180’. I couldn’t help but wonder, ‘why is everything timed so wrongly in this country’ its just so annoying. Apart from scraping post ume why would the general cut off be set on a record high for polytechnics and colleges of education on the very year that jamb perhaps had its worse exam conduction and result. I was still trying to digest that and find how best to relay the info to my expectant friends when ‘FG’ struck again. This time it was NYSC, though the presidency was quick to refute that but you and I know there’s no limit to what this government can do and who knows what is next, perhaps IT or maybe internship in any government institution would soon have to be made a no-pay internship. Why? We’re severely poor and going wretched as a country. My fear is that the FG would end up in a mess just like they did in the corruption fighting issue. He came in whisking everyone away, a military man with no knowledge of the workings of the law and its complexities inadvertently forgetting that this is 2016 not 1983 where he had absolute power. When it dawned on him that with such approach all he’d achieve is a backlog of litigation against state thieves on his exit he whittled down in a bid to encourage others to return their loot he said. Now he’s growing wise and diplomatic by force. My fear is that before he grows wise on the issue on ground it may be too late but I don’t really blame him, what do u expect? The profs are proving why they spent so much time in school. I wonder what Nigerians like the other writer were expecting when they elected a ‘spartan’ to rule ‘intelligent’ men. I rest my case on the most high because even the bible has told us what to expect when ‘certain people’ rule a nation and I also think proverbs 24:21(KJV) is worthy of attention on the issue of change.
If this write-up has sounded harsh in anyway, I just want you to know Mr President that it is not half the anger people hold against you who I’m sure assented to all the scrapings.

I would like to state that the Nigerian students would not stop writing and criticizing what they perceive to be wrong until the right thing is done. Some say he has a thick skin and do not mind what people say, let’s wait till the disaster comes to his doorstep and we’d know exactly how deep that thickness is. I call on all Nigerian students to pick their pen and write, doesn’t matter if you ‘re an A student in English or not, just write. Relay the little happenings and inconveniences around you. Let’s us copy the freedom writers of California but this time let us not only write for our liberation but for the liberation of our country. Aluta continua.

Remember, you too can share your write-ups with us, simply e-mail to [email protected] and we will publish it here as soon as possible. Cheers.

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