By Chris Nwankwor
Candidates from the commercial city of Aba who registered for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations or UTME are leaking various kinds of deep wounds . This is as a result of physical, psychological, emotional, financial and material injuries they sustained as they seek for admission in the country’s tertiary institutions through the examinations exclusively administered by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board or JAMB. The Board delisted Aba from the cities in which its examination would hold this year; but Aba residents did not know.
The woes and travails of the 2023 UTME candidates would have made big news on national television stations had this treatment been meted to candidates in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Owerri, Idadan, Benin – any persons other than Aba candidates, most of whose parents are better experienced and more interested in attending to their trades at the city’s major markets and have little time, stomach , courage or anything else needed to take their children’s travails to the media. Interestingly too, even journalists in Abia State did nothing to show that they witnessed the gruelling, punitive experience that these teenagers have gone through these past three months from the completion of UTME forms in January, through the optional sitting for the mock examination in March to the main UTME that are about ending in about 708 examination centres spead across small towns and big cities in the country.
Here is the issue: After JAMB announced in January that candidates should go to registration centres all over the county to register on- line for this year’s UTME and mock, thousands of boys and girls in Aba went to already known registration centres to get registered; but they got the shock of their lives: They could not get registered. JAMB did not approve or accredit any establishment, institution or business place in Aba to serve as a registration centre or UTME examination centre this year. And Aba residents were not told. In some prospective registration centres they visited, proprietors told the desperate candidates to pay money, put their names down and come back at a later date to confirm whether JAMB had opened the registration portal for them. Some candidates, most of whom should be in their SS3 classes studying, kept visiting one business centre after another , and hardly any centre proprietor told these youngsters that there was no hope of registering with them this year. Some centre proprietors never imagined JAMB would be so insensitive as to totally shut off Aba for this year’s registration exercise, mock and UTME proper. But that was what happened: JAMB blacklisted Aba in toto.
A few enlightened parents in the city opened JAMB’s website to see the list of registration centres in the country , only to see under Abia State that Aba was not mentioned. And this is Aba city where JAMB had its first and only regional office east of the Niger in the 1980s. When I sat for JAMB( there was no UTME then) in 1984, in Enugu, it was to Aba that schools sent people to buy JAMB forms in bulk, bring up to all parts of old Anambra and old Imo States for candidates to buy and complete. But today, Aba has no JAMB office. Yet, probably three- quarters of all UTME candidates in Abia State come from Aba every year. But the great examination body did not inform prospective candidates for this year’s examination that it would not serve them in their territory.
So when some people found that there were no registrations in Aba, they spread the news ,and parents took permission in their workplaces or closed their markets and businesses to take their kids to the nearest registration centre , which is JAMB Office , Umuahia, on the Enugu/ Port Harcourt Expressway, some 50 or so kilometres away. Early callers easily registered ; but those who could not get the information early and were still waiting for JAMB to open registration in Aba , went to the Umuahia JAMB Office a few days to the close of registration in February. Some went two or three times, some spent nights there, some came home very late – just to register for UTME.
That was not the end of the trouble for Aba candidates and their parents: They had found while completing the UTME on- line form that there would be no mock and the main examination in Aba.So for examination town, they chose Umuahia, that being the nearest examination town to Aba. These are children of Aba – based parents who come from various parts of the country. The only place an average Aba child knows is often the part of the city where they live. How old are they anyway?: 16 years mostly.
The mock was usually on one and the same day for all candidates – nationwide. Naturally there was a scarcity of centres. Aba candidates were subjected to unimaginable stress as rather than being posted to Umuahia for the mock examination, many were posted to Isuochi in the northernmost part of Abia State which borders Enugu State – some 120 to 150 kilometres from Aba. Some were posted to Item or Bende also in the northern part of the state; Aba is in the south. These were mainly young teenagers who had never before travelled out of the city unaccompanied. Now they were required to travel 100 – plus kilometres from home to sit for examinations scheduled for 6.30 a.m., 9 a.m., 12 noon or 3 p.m.
For many candidates, their parents weighed the options and the cost implications – one parent travelling with the child to examination town and spending one or two nights; financial implications of the long journey; exposure to accidents on the road; closure of family business, especially when one parent is running the business; obtaining permission from office for one or two days from workplace etc. In case of a particular family I know, they did not think twice when they saw their son was posted to do the mock in Isuochi; they thought about the long distance between Aba and Isuochi, as well as the widely known kidnapping in Isuochi of the Methodist Bishop by herdsmen who later released him only after receiving a ransome of N100million , and promptly decided that their son would not go for the mock examination. Two or three other families I know did not let their kids go for the mock in Isuochi, their own reason being that they did not know how to go to the place. Many Aba candidates paid for the mock examination, but just did not go to sit for it because it was outside their city of residence. While some parents braved it all and travelled wherever their children were posted to, spending large sums of money and enduring all the pressures, others angrily queried why they should go through such gruelling travails and financial expenses just for the mock. They would rather wait for the main UTME. And they did so, praying and fasting for their children to be posted to Umuahia. Not that they preferred Umuahia to Aba, but because Aba was completely ruled out.
As the UTME proper began last week, the same scenario with regard to posting Aba candidates outside Umuahia played out, though to a reduced extent, because there were four examinations in one day and many more candidates could be accommodated in Umuahia. But yes, some Aba candidates were made to take the examination in far- away Isuochi, Bende or Item. For one of the candidates, his father , amidst fear of attack by unknown gun men on a day of sit at home and kidnapping by herdsmen- kidnappers , travelled with his boy on Monday , to sleep over so that the boy would take the examination on the first day of the UTME, last Tuesday. They took transport many times – first from Aba to Osisioma New Park; another from Osisioma to Umuahia Tower; the next from Umuahia to Okigwe Park; another vehicle from Okigwe to Leru junction, and lastly they managed to pick a tricycle to get to see the centre in Isuochi. For their lodging , a member of their church whom he dis not know previously accommodated them. They returned to Aba on Tuesday night after the examination.
For another candidate, aged 16, his father had gone with him to Isuochi for the mock. They hired and lodged in a hotel. Just for mock examination! For the main examination, the candidate was again posted to the same centre. His father, now used to the suffering in long travels and expenses, was preparing to go with his boy again; but they saw a neighbour of theirs who comes from Isuochi and whose son was also posted to their hometown for the examination, and his mother was to go with him. So the father who had gone with his son for the mock handed his son to the care of the neighbour from Isuochi. He spent about twenty thousand Naira for both travels.
One of the things that pain parents of Aba UTME candidates is why JAMB did not give its thousands of stakeholders in the city any prior warning regarding delisting all Aba centres this year. While they wonder why JAMB failed to tell them ahead of the registration, some Aba residents do know why JAMB did the delisting in the first place: Many UTME centres in Aba condoned, aided and abetted various forms of examination malpractice last year.
The 2022 UTME results for most Aba centres were cancelled wholesale by JAMB; and their candidates were scattered in different towns and states outside Aba to retake the examinations. Many of the affected candidates re- sat for the examination in Owerri, Mbaise and other towns – outside Abia.
It is said that the extent, volume and nature of the fraud was so large and distressing that JAMB could not help but order the massive cancellations. It is said that in some centres, the CCTV was disconnected so that whatever cheating took place in the examination halls would not be seen by the all – monitoring eyes of JAMB boss, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, and his executive. We even heard that the no – nonsense Registrar personally visited Aba, and saw some irregularities firsthand. I could not confirm that.
Aba candidates knew the wonder centres , and many arranged with centre proprietors to import mercenary examination writers who replaced the candidates on their exam seats and wrote the examinations for them – with the connivance of the proprietors and the candidates’ parents who provided the huge sums of money paid to the hired examination writers.
But get it straight: Not all centres did that, and not all candidates knew that any illegality or fraudulent practice took place in their centres, let alone participate in the cheating. But it was said to be widespread. This was why Oloyede truck, why JAMB bared its fangs against Aba candidates this year.They seem to have said, “ After we have dealt with Aba, its people will learn the lesson of their lives and will never again mess with JAMB. “ Yes, this is punishment. But to whom? JAMB would say, “ To Aba UTME centres; I say, “ To Aba UTME candidates and their parents. “ I will come back to that.
It is disheartening that some 2022 Aba residents caused this great pain to be inflicted on the emotions, minds, purses and businesses of the city’s residents and their young teens. Had examination centre proprietors in the town rested content with whatever money they legally made from JAMB, and desisted from avariciously, greedily and criminally getting involved in subverting the board’s efforts at conducting fraud- free examinations, these woes would not have befallen the city’s JAMBite community and their parents.
It pains to experience or hear such negative things about a city which that is already in need of image – laundering and restoration of public trust in the quality of its many products which are being taken for sale in all parts of the country. The action of the cheating UTME centre proprietors is highly condemnable and should be discouraged by all Aba residents who should themselves shake off all tendencies to cut corners or cheat or reduce the quality of service or product received or given in Aba. It should be the responsibility of all to build the image or reputation of Aba as a place to be positively reckoned with in all spheres. The centre proprietors who aided the cheating the UTME examinations are as guilty as the parents who funded the underhand practice and the lazy, criminal – minded candidates that benefited from the illegality .
Another inexplicable but distressing point is the tendency of Aba residents to suffer in silence and passively suffer injustice from higher powers, as they did by not making any attempt to have JAMB rescind its delisting of their city as an examination host. If UTME candidates’ parents in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Abeokuta, Benin, Akure or any other city found out as Aba residents learned in January – that their city was banned from hosting the UTME, they would take immediate, intelligent, far – reaching, effective action to ensure that JAMB made a U – turn and restored their city as exam city.
What could Aba parents have done?: Simply organize themselves into Aba 2023 JAMBites Parents’ Forum; hold meetings; pick the elites among them as leaders; raise some money which would no doubt be much less than what they spent travelling to and paying for hotels in Isuochi , Item and Bende; organize a Press Conference attended by Correspondents of leading newspapers as well as leading broadcast houses like Arise News, Channels TV, AIT, Radio Nigeria, TVC etc ; and present their case passionately to the world. By evening, the media would be awash with news on ‘what JAMB is doing to Aba candidates ‘. JAMB would not have stood the heat of such ubiquitous bad press. In addition, their Forum could also have sought the intervention of the courts, Abia Federal legislators, Abia serving ministers, NBA Aba branch whose members also had children who are UTME cadidates this year.
But , characteristically, Aba parents kept mute and did nothing to upturn their draconian sentence to hard labour, but like a sheep taken to the slaughter suffered the injustice – as if they were the centre owners who aided cheating last year and as if their kids perpetrated the exam fraud which JAMB is so angry about. Characteristically I said – because the Aba community is known for suffering injustice from above in fear and silence and as if nothing can be done to reverse a Federal Government, State Government, Local Government, NEPA, EEDC, PHCN, Aba Power or their Agency’s decision or imposition or practice in the city. So they suffer under illegal tax, rates and other revenues collectors.
There is little, almost no existence, of pre- paid metres in Aba to date, a practice power companies have used to fleece the residents. As I write this, Aba – all of Aba city – has been without public electricity supply for one month or so now. Nobody has explained why, but it is reported that this came about because the Power Company now serving the city has been cut off from the national greed. The cutting off from the national greed is known to be a current national phenomenon ; but no city in the country, except Aba, is totally without power.
Aba residents are too media – backward, too media – illiterate, too little media – exposed for comfort and for survival in the 21st century. This is the bane of the city; and the situation has not been palliated or made better by the existence of about five privately owned FM- radio stations in the city today. None of the stations nor NTA Aba nor the State’s radio station nor the other radio stations in Umuahia reported the travails of Aba 2023 UTME candidates.
It may be argued that JAMB’s action is justified in that it is punishment for an offence against it as well as a deterrent for further perpetuation of the offence by anyone. Yes, punishments are justified; penalties should be meted out ,and serious punitive measures should be taken . But against whom? Punishment, penalty or any action in response to an offence should be targeted at the offender.
To subject the 2023 candidates and their helpless parents to these pains, travails, tears, thorns and thistles is like flogging a child for another child’s offence, like imprisoning or fining a man for someone else’s crime and making someone suffer for an offence he absolutely had no hand in. By causing these unnecessary pains on Aba residents, JAMB has clearly contravened an obvious and loudly spoken natural, universal, divine justice which holds that someone cannot eat sour grapes and another’s teeth will be set on edge: A person cannot die for the sin of his father.
Chris Nwankwor, a Journalist and Public Affairs Analyst, wrote in from Aba.
