Comrade Lekan Badmus is a columnist with Oduduwa News.
One of the political weapons to woo voters in any election is promises. This is not peculiar to Nigeria. It is the common practice in the world. After all, governance has to do with impactful programmes on the lives of the electorates.
The recent promise made by one of the presidential hopefuls, Asiwaju Tinubu has become another subject of discussion amongst pundits. The APC stalwart has willingly and under no duress, promised to pay the WAEC fees of the students across the nation. As soothing as this promise seems, Nigerians are sceptical about the pledge; thus, the various reactions.
Those who have made scathing remarks on this promise may not be totally wrong. We have had failed promise in the past. We have had a government who promised to reduce oil pump price but ended up eventually by increasing it. We have had a government who claimed to have a clue to put an end to terrorism but ended up by playing upon our intelligence by swapping and branding terrorism, banditry. We have had a government who promised to being us out of economic doldrum but who ended compounding our economic woes. One who claimed to be an apostle of fundamental human rights ended up wiping a clan out of the surface of the earth at Odi village. We have not forgotten how a leader promised to promote freedom of speech but later are his words by forcing padlocks on the mouth of the press. The examples are endless. Most have become promises that could not hold water. They were promises on the tip of the tongue.
Apparently, the scepticism stemmed from the various unfulfilled promises of the past.Nigerians are not suffering from insomnia. We have been disappointed. As soon as the politicians gained power, they turned their back; forgetting the proverbial ladder which they used to climb to the top! It is at this comfort apex office that they begin to differentiate between the mathematical angles of elevation and depression.
In reality, I have never believed in bursary award. Most often than not, the bursary welfare has always fallen to wrong hands. The indigents students are on most occasions denied and deprived because local government certificate of origin is easy to procure at a cheap price by non-indigenes. And this is the criteria for disbursing the sum. Aside this, the number of beneficiaries are usually doctored by the politicians. More nauseating is the fact that the money are spent on frivolity by the beneficiaries. This is peculiar to the south west anyway.
From the immediate above, I prefer the payment of WAEC fees for students but with a caveat. Currently, the 2022 WAEC candidates have been requested to pay between #22, 000 to #25,000. This is a collosal sum. I bet you, many students might not write the examination due to financial incapability of their parents. WAEC is a terminal examination and a certificate one for that matter. Any student who unavoidably missed the examination stands to waste the six years of schooling. Thus, the logic in the payment of WAEC fees by Tinubu.
Be that as it may, what Asiwaju has failed to tell us is the way and manner with which he hopes to achieve this. In the developed nations, political office seekers would not just give an ambiguous statement. Rather, they would follow it with empirical statistics to establish the feasibility of the promise. Asiwaju needs to be explicit and vivid. In Nigeria, politicians seldom giving volatile and vague promise because they do not mean what they say. I am not waving Asiwaju’s promise with the back of the hands. He has the clout based on his success in Lagos state. But did he consider the number of potential WAEC candidates across the nation with reference to the payable fees ?! How does he plan to prevent conspiracy?
Anyway, someone like Tinubu would have sat down and thought about this promise. But at the same time, he owes us the explanation.
Let us be factual, students in the north have continually enjoyed free education, bursary and scholarship. One begins to wonder how they are achieving this! There is also a special grant for the exceptional students but such package has not been extended to the south. Could this mean the southern political leaders are scuttling the gesture ! We are all aware of the free feeding programmes that is well coordinated in the north, the covid-19 palliatives, the tradermoni and a host of other welfare programmes. Are we under spell in the south ?
On a final note, one of the banes of bursary award and “WAEC subsidy” or outright payment is the deliberate and callous inflation of the potential WAEC students across the schools because schools lack viable data and school management sometime act in connivance with the rogues within some examination bodies in Nigeria to hike the figure so as to get some returns. My submission here is subject to verification in schools across south west. It is not my habit making fallacious claim. I stand to be challenged. Move to schools and find out whether there are no special registers !
Anyway, the payment is not impossible. I only pray that it won’t be a dangling carrot and a bait from the predators to the unsuspecting preys.
For comments:
lekanbadmuscolumn@gmail.com
