If the West African Examinations Council goes ahead with its threat to withhold the results of students in states owing the registration fees for the May/June 2015 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, a total of 412,000 candidates will be affected. This figure represents the total number of affected candidates in the 19 debtor states.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the 412,000 candidates’ chances of gaining admission into universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and others including specialised schools, will be threatened if their results are not released.

WAEC conducts several international and national examinations in all member countries, but only conducts the WASSCE for school candidates in May/June and private candidates in November/December in Nigeria.

The WAEC, during the week, threatened to withhold results of candidates from 19 out of the 36 states of the federation over the non-payment of N4bn examination registration fees by the state governments to the body. However, investigations by Saturday PUNCH shared that one of the debtor states, Akwa Ibom, had paid its debt on Thursday, bringing the number of states owing WAEC down to 18.

The affected candidates are from public secondary schools in the debtor states. Candidates who sat for the examination in private schools in the affected states will not be affected should the crisis go unresolved.

Findings show that the results of the examination, which was reportedly written by about 1.2 million candidates, are likely to be released in about two weeks from now.

Kebbi, Osun, Ogun, Oyo, Zamfara, Cross River, Niger and Nasarawa are some of the states that top the list of debtors, according to Saturday PUNCH’s investigation.

The WAEC’s Head of National Office, Lagos, Mr. Charles Eguridu, had announced at a news briefing during the week that in addition to the May/June 2015 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, some states also owe the body registration fees for the May/June 2014 WASSCE.

Eguridu said the council had “written to the affected state governments without any response” and that the poor response of the debtor states was threatening the operations of the council.

He also said the results of the candidates sponsored by the debtor states might not be released.

He said, “A total number of 19 states in the country owe the Council in respect of entry fees for state government sponsored candidates for the May/June 2015 WASSCE. Some states also still owe the Council registration fees for the May/June 2014 WASSCE.

“We, therefore, want to publicly plead with the affected states to off-set the registration fees of their candidates as soon as possible, as we cannot guarantee that the results of their candidates for the May/June 2015 will be released along with others.”

Many states of the federation, as part of their education policy, pay the registration fees of candidates for the WASSCE, particularly in their public schools.

But with the current cash crunch in the country, which was largely due to falling oil prices, states have struggled to meet their obligations, with many of them owing workers’ salaries and pensioners’ allowances.

Governor Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara State, one of the debtor states, on Wednesday, attributed the failure of some states to pay the WAEC fees of their candidates to the difficulties in ascertaining the amount truly owed.

Also on Wednesday, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, said he had ordered the immediate payment of N496m the state owed the examination body.

Meanwhile, it is not the first time that the council will have a confrontation with state governments.

In 2013, the body withheld the results of 70,000 Oyo State public school candidates who sat for the May/June WASSCE in that year over the non-payment of registration fees by the state government.

The council also withheld the May/June 2014 results of all public secondary schools in Cross River State over a debt of over N300m the state government owed the body. The amount was for 2013 and 2014 WASSCE registration fees.

A senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Prof. Oluwatoba Elegbeye, faulted the debtor state governments for failing to prioritise education.

He added that WAEC should not be blamed for the action it plans to take, saying, “If you owe me money, I’m bound to find a way of collecting my money from you, otherwise my own activities will not run smoothly.”

He added, “It’s a very obvious reality that education should be prioritised. Whatever a state governor intends to do in terms of achievement; education ought to come as a priority before any other considerations.”

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