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Unfulfilled promise : WAEC’s unpaid N4 billion debt

By Ransome Oboh
12 August 2015   |   11:36 pm
TO promise what is impossible is to deceive people. A lot of people often promise what they know they cannot fulfill. This is very common among politicians who are fond of taking advantage of the poor economic situation of Nigeria, for which they are mainly responsible. It is certain that due to the great awareness…

Debt copyTO promise what is impossible is to deceive people. A lot of people often promise what they know they cannot fulfill. This is very common among politicians who are fond of taking advantage of the poor economic situation of Nigeria, for which they are mainly responsible. It is certain that due to the great awareness of the importance of education, even to qualify to contest for councillorship, one needed to have got primary and possibly secondary education.

It is rather unfortunate that a lot of young, intelligent girls and boys from poor homes have not been able to sit for WAEC because their parents could not pay the fees. Trust the voracious Nigeria politicians, especially some of the state governors. They offered to take care of the fees. Parents of such beneficiaries of the gesture laced with political undertone prayed for them, fasted for such insincere politicians and even fought to cast their votes for them.

Now WAEC had come out publically to inform the whole world that the affected 600,000 students, whose states’ governors’ reneged on paying for the registration for the 2014/15 West African Senior School Certificate Examination might have their results withheld.

The WAEC spokesman should be commended for the way he has been managing the whole issue, especially the information aspect. Both the APC and PDP spokesmen should learn from him. The man has been communicating effectively. He has not publicly mentioned any state as debtor but the indebted states know.

Only God promises and never falls. We should learn to be sincere in whatever we either say or do and keep our promises or not promise if we are not sure of fulfilling it. In case there is disappointment, we should take pains to get back to those we had made promise to and inform them on why things may not work as planned.

Imagine that the results should have been released but for the debts, while those who claim to be honourable and have been further honoured by public relations officers have proved to the entire public that a pig remains one any day, any time. Even if a piglet is managed from birth in a better environment, on its release it finds itself in the mud, which its parents are used to.

To promise what is impossible is a disservice to the masses. Did the governors of those debtor-states not pay the WAEC fees for their children or relations? Those students who were allegedly assisted with their enrolment could be likened to God, who was hungry and thirsty but was neither sincerely fed nor given water to drink.

Dr. Oboh, FIDM, (ransomeoboh@yahoo.com) is Auditor 1, Abeokuta Diocese, Catholic Men Orgasnisation.

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