It seems that the decision by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) not to allow Cyber Cafe owners to register candidates in the forth coming UTME is raising some dusts as the Cyber Cafe owners under the umbrella of Association of Educational Services and Cyber Café Operators (AESCCO) has sent a letter to the Nigerian senate, describing the move by JAMB as discrimination against Cyber Cafes mostly owned by small and medium scale business owners and a huge favour to already established big time business owners who are mostly the owners of the JAMB accredited CBt centre.
In the letter dated March 6th, 2017 and signed by the lawyer to the association, Mr. Femi Aborisade, the group stated that JAMB should upgrade to the level where by UTME applicants will be allowed to register online using their personal computers or that of their parents as is done by WAEC and NECO without experiencing duplication and/or swapping of applicants’ data, and if that is not possible now, JAMB should allow the applicants to register either with accredited centres or Cyber Cafe.
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The association stated that it may be true that there may be some sharp practices and examination related fraud by some of the cyber cafes but that can equally be said of some of the accredited CBT centres. What JAMB needs to do in that regard is to put measures in place to monitor such fraudulent activities and mete out appropriate punishment where necessary, the group stated.
The group equally argued that the move by JAMB is unconstitutional and against human rights. It cited the international court ruling of the the African Charter on Human People’s Rights as well as constitutional provisions that states that the right to life entails the right to livelihood and also the Section 16 (1c) of the 1999 Constitution, which states: “The state shall within the context of the ideals and objectives for which provisions are made in this Constitution that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of a few individuals or of a group.”
The body therefore called on the Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions of the Nigerian Senate to look into the issue and compel JAMB to act within the tenets of the constitution as its decision to disallow Cyber cafes from registering UTME candidates goes against human and constitutional rights.
