JAMB, policy dissonance in education and pseudo federalism by Polycarp Onwubiko

The undeniable collective amnesia of Nigerians led to grope in darkness in seeking solution to the abysmal fall in the standard of education in the country.
The problem has its source and spring from the unwarranted intrusion of the military in governance.  The sorry pass the country finds itself is due to what the Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo described as the “humongous damage done to the nation’s constitution by the military”. In similar vein, OluObafemi in the Saturday Sun July 9, 2016 contended that “in every civilized federation of the world, there must be the federal principle which refers to the method of dividing powers so that federal and regional or state governments are within a sphere co-ordinate and independent of one another”.
Pseudo and false federalism clamped on the country by the aberrant military regimes has wrecked incalculable damage to the socio-economic growth and development of Nigeria. One of the disastrous casualties is education which has been subjected to policy dissonance and policy summer-sault through the years ostensibly to dance to the tunes of the northerners to the detriment of the southerners.
The series of educational policies programmes and projects being churned out by the federal ministry of education clearly violated the principles of federal system of government. The clause in the Concurrent legislative List that says that when the policies of the federal government in virtually any sector clashes with the state governments, the federal government’s policies will prevail must be deleted. The clause was a deliberate act in the military imposed 1999 Constitution being panel-beaten in the lopsided National Assembly where the Northerners intimidate the legislators in the Middle-belt to align with them in voting in the Bills.
The essence of the clause was to maintain the centralized and hegemonic federalism which has been the root of cries of marginalization born out of inequity and injustice in the distribution of political positions by the past and present APC-led federal government.

The principles of federalism were applied in all aspects of our national life in the First Republic and the Regional governments were in healthy competition to assuage the obviously peculiar yearnings and aspirations of their people through policies, programmes and projects. In the Eastern Region, government allowed the missionaries and entrepreneurs to run educational institutions subject to guidelines by the inspectorate department of the ministry of education. The society was the better for it as morality and discipline were inculcated which did not make room for social problems that have ravaged the country now.
It was the daring exploits of the Igbos in refining petroleum products and military arsenals during the Nigeria-Biafra war that made the military to direct the Sole Administrator of East-central state Chief Ukpabi Asika to convert missionary and private schools to government schools without compensation ostensibly to monitor what was being taught in the schools.
 The groundswell of discontent by all and sundry never bothered the military since it was a hidden agenda designed to slow down the fast educational advancement of the Igbos in particular and the southern part of the in general. As a follow up to the government take-over of schools, the federal government took over the universities established by the regional governments instead of building its own.
In the same vicious agenda, the federal military government took away the constitutional right of institutions of higher learning to conduct entrance examinations based on the standard they wanted to maintain so that the certificates would be acclaimed. JAMB was created in 1978 in the naïve reason that parents spent a lot of money to buy admission forms as if candidates were crying against purchase of admission forms. The fact remains that a brilliant candidate whocould afford to purchase one admission form could secure admission.
As if that arrant nonsense was not enough, the aberrant military goaded by the Northern caliphate came up with “educationally backward states” and “educational advanced states” as if the later were responsible for the lethargy of the former. The scores of the candidates of the former were lowered thus denying brilliant candidates of the opportunity to gain admission to fulfill their destiny. There was no freedom of speech since according to Right Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, it was only a fool that would argue with somebody with gun.
The serial pitfalls of JAMB led to all manner of innovations which have never compensated for the monstrous aberration of centralizing admissions into the institutions of higher learning which is never obtainable in any country. It was the same muddle that necessitated post-UTME but was aborted to satiate the agenda of the feudal caliphate. The education minister, Adamu Adamu brazenly abrogated post-UTME on the irrational reason that it was a burden to the candidates and financial exploits by the universities.
 The resurgence of the agitation for Republic of Biafra and the Delta militancy had their source and spring to the brazen bastardization of true federal system of government.
States must be allowed to implement their preferred policies in the education and even other sectors of the economy.For instance, the educational aspirations of Zamfara people have proved to be not the same with Anambra people.
 In its serial groping in the dark, JAMB has come up with the so-called “new grading system of merging the fraud-infested WASC and NECO results with UTME scores for the 2016/2017 session. Federal government-owned institutions can go on with JAMB but state-owned institutions must be allowed to conduct their entrance examinations in line with federal system of government. It is brazen flouting of the law for the federal government which has no hand in funding the higher institutions belonging to the state governments and private entrepreneurs to allowJAMB to conduct entrance examination for them. Where in the world is this outright non-sense tolerated?
Mr. Onwubiko wrote via polymbiko @yahoo.com, Awka Anambra state