JAMB exam glitch: South-East senators suspect foul play, cite hateful politics

By Amah
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The South East Senate Caucus has the glitch experienced in some centres in Lagos and especially in the entire South-east southeast in the last UTME conducted by JAMB is suspicious.

Describing the development as ‘curious and highly suspicious’, the lawmakers blamed it on “injecting hateful politics and narrow parochial considerations in both policy enunciation and its implementations”.

Enyinnaya Abaribe, the APGA Senator, representing Abia South, and chairman of the South-east caucus expressed worry  as regards conspiracy theory “that there is a narrow agenda being pursued to deliberately shortchange and harm the future of our children”.

The caucus said it had assessed the situation and noted with cautious optimism the efforts being made to mitigate the near disaster, particularly the rescheduling of the examination, warning, however, that a future reoccurrence will be unacceptable.

Abaribe added that the Southeast senators welcomed the JAMB’s timely acceptance of and apologies by its registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede.

He noted though that the caucus hopes that such a display of public remorse  was sincere and not intended mask a future sinister agenda against the educational advancement of South-east children.

“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,” Abaribe said.

“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.”

Abaribe emphasised that the South East Senate Caucus is unequivocal in demanding from JAMB and other relevant national educational policy makers to ensure that the ugly incident does not recur.