Today, I've more questions than answers. One of which is: why don't we have northerners in the administration of WAEC?
Following is the structure of West Africa Examination Council (WAEC). There's a council with a chairman and vice chairman. Then there are representatives of five (The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra-Leone and Liberia) English speaking West African countries in the council. Gambia has four representatives. Liberia also has four. Sierra-Leone has five. Ghana has six. Nigeria has twelve; if we add the chairman and his vice - who are also Nigerians - we have 14 representatives.
Out the 14, five are northerners and nine are southerners (Prof. Pius Augustine Ike Obanya is chairman of Council and Barr. Daniel Chike is his vice). Although this is not equal representation seeing that the north is two-third of Nigeria with 19 states out of 36 including the capital and has more population, this is not the surprising part of the story.
What's surprising is that there's no northerner among the managers and administrators - those who run the day-to-day business - of WAEC.
After the council, when we move down the rungs, we have the registrar, head of offices (in the five countries) , head of divisions in Nigeria national office , head of departments/sections/units, then there are zonal coordinators followed by branch controllers and finally officers in charge of two satellite offices.
The registrar , Dr. Iyi Uwadiae is a southerner. The head of office, Charles M. Eguridu, is a southerner. Out of the five heads of divisions (admin, finance, CSD, test development and test admin.), none is a northerner. Out of the four heads of departments (works, security and printing public affairs and legal), none is a northerner. They are Mr. I.S. Omoya, Mrs. V. U. Nwachukwu, Ag.Head Mr. Y. D. Ari, Mr. S.O.O. Ojo .
It's the same thing with all the sections in the finance department: treasury (Mrs. B. A. Ojeleye), account and branches (Mr. J.S. Obebe) and expenditure (Mr. G.U. Ihe).
Other heads are: Mr. P.F. Ohaeri (private candidate exams dept), Mr. M.M. Ikhina (Scripts Room), Mrs. D.U. Onuorah (School Exam Dept), Mr. J.R. Adebayo (Security Exam. Co-ord.), Mr A. Oshin (Examiners' Records), Mrs. M.A. Oyebode (ABSD), Mrs. O.O Ajibade (Science Dept), Alhaja Mrs S.O. Olanigan (Post Exam Dept), Mr. Idowu E. Ojo (AG. Head MTSD), Mrs.Y.R.A Oyediran (Language Dept), Mrs. H.O. Hassan (AG. Head Aptitude Test Dept. )
It is the same thing in the admin section: Dr. B. F. Fagbamila (Clinic), Mr. A. Faboro (HRMD), Mr. G.S. Dandak (Meetings Unit), Mr C. .D. Oforha (e-Facility Dept), Mr. M.O. Omoregie (Programming Dept), Mrs. O.O. Atekoja (Systems Dept), Mr. F.A. Adewale (Production Control Dept), Mr. O.A. Ajayi (Operations Dept).
Further, all the 12 zonal coordinators including the one in Kaduna ( O.I.Adenipekun), Sokoto (R.A. Umanah), Maiduguri (J.O. Ijitola) and Abuja (K.E. Ekekwe) are southerners.
There are 17 branch controllers listed on WAEC website and all of them except the controller in Yola (A.J. Dangut) are southerners. The controller in Kano is P.E. Areghan, the one in Katsina is J.O. Popoola, the one in Ilorin is Z.A. Unegbu, the one posted to my town, Minna, is P.O. Akpomuaire. Finally, officers in charge of the two satellite offices in Ikorodu and Ojo are T.O. Adekeye and A.D. Oluwafemi respectively.
This information provokes several questions. How is it possible that our children - who write this examination every year - are not represented in WAEC? Doesn't this feed the suspicion northerners have about these examinations being skewed against them? In a country where almost everyone could be bought for a small fee, isn't it proper to have all the regions adequately represented so that there would be harmonious equilibrium in the operational parts? Do Nigerians trust one another enough to have one region run examinations for everyone else? Are Nigerians fair in their dealings enough to expect just treatment to the excluded region from the running of an organization?
When we were in secondary school we believed that examination questions always leaked in the south - especially in Lagos. We also believed that anyone with the money could buy questions. These convictions were only confirmed when students from that region didn't do better than us in the universities or performed well below the superlative results which they used in getting in.
Although cheating in examinations is now ubiquitous in the country, lopsided appointments like this shows why it's more brazen in the south. Every year during national youth service, corps members who can't explain how they got their degrees are sent to the north. There was a year when a lady from the south-east couldn't speak even Pidgin English. Last year, there was a corps member in Minna also from the south who could only speak pidgin and couldn't name three states and their capitals. Also, the fake youth service camp in Nassarawa State, although situated in the north, is always populated by southerners.
All these are visited on a region which is already disadvantaged in education.
But northerners must also share in the blame, because it's our inaction including the lack of coordinated investment in education that engendered this outcome.
Lastly, although WAEC is not directly owned by government, its two sources of revenue are the examination fees which every student pays and government subventions which belong to every part of the country, because all parents pay taxes. Therefore, WAEC should be for all of us. Unfortunately, since the time of Professor M. 0. Oyawoye as the chairman in the 1980s, the organization has been dominated by a section of the country.
