WAEC threatens to withhold results of debtor-states’ students

By Jerry Uwah
Lagos

West African Examination Council (WAEC) has threatened to withhold the May/June 2015 result of candidates from states that their governments were yet to pay their exam registration fees.
Many states of the federation pay the registration fees of candidates for the WASSCE, particularly for students in public schools.

Speaking at a crowded press conference on Monday at the Yaba, Lagos, head office of the council, the head of the Nigeria national office of WAEC, Dr. Charles Eguridu, lamented that the council was broke as a result of the inability of the affected states to off-set the registration fees owed the council.

Eguridu lamented that WAEC had not been able to pay its supervisors, examiners and service providers because of the indebtedness of the affected states to the council.
He said: “As I speak to you now, we are cash-strapped as a result of the delay in off-setting the registration fees owed the council by some states.  As a result, we are finding it difficult in meeting our financial obligations, particularly to our supervisors, examiners and service providers.

“A total of 19 states in the country owe the Council in respect of entry fees for state government sponsored candidates for the May/June 2015 WASSCE.  Some states also still owe the council registration fees for May/June 2014 WASSCE.”
He said that WAEC was working assiduously to ensure that the result of the May/June 2015 WASSCE was released on time.

The National head of WAEC in Nigeria stressed that the Council had written to the affected states pleading with them to settle their bills, all to no avail.
“We, therefore, want to publicly plead with the affected states to off-set the registration fees of their candidates as soon as possible, as we cannot guarantee that the result of their candidates for the May/June 2015 WASSCE will be released along with others.”

But the cash crunch of the last one year in the country engendered by dwindling returns from oil export due to low oil prices has strained the financial resources of some states to the extent that many have not paid the salaries of their workers for several months.
Eguridu refused to name the 19 debtor-states, insisting that they would only be named after all efforts to get them to honour their financial obligations to the council failed.