The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has expressed fear that the cancellation of this year’s West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) may promote criminality.
Babalola described the decision as not only ill-conceived but posed a dangerous threat to the lives of the country’s future leaders, adding that the destinies of 1.5 million students, who registered for the external examination was hanging in the balance with the withdrawal of Nigeria from the external examination.
He said it was wrong for the Federal Government to have taken such unilateral decision, due to the fear of COVID-19, when other participating nations have not withdrawn their students from sitting for the external examination.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, had last week announced the Federal government’s intention to withdraw Nigeria’s candidates from the examination due to the hazard posed by the spread of COVID-19.
In a statement personally signed in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, the legal icon said the Federal Government should allow the WASSCE to hold in the empty spaces in tertiary institutions which can accommodate 1.5 million registered students without defying COVID-19 protocols.
Speaking on the withdrawal, which he said was not well thought -out, the legal luminary said: “It is my firm belief that the future of these 1.5 million young Nigerians who have registered for WAEC should not be put in jeopardy. It is a well-known fact that all schools, colleges and tertiary institutions in the country are currently shut down.